I 


Of   Aj    »;  Co] 


COLE'S  COMBINED  SYSTEM 


Drainage  and  Irrigation. 


A  NEW  SYSTEM  OF  AGRICULTURE," 


ORIGINATED    BY 


A.    N.     COLE,    WELLSVILLE,    ALLEGANY    CO.,    N.    Y. 


A.     F».     COLK 


PRICE  IN  PAPER  COVER,  75  Cents;   CLOTH,  $1.00. 


Copyright,  1889. 
BY  A.  P.  COLE. 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 

Preface 5 

Biographical  Sketch  of  A.  N.  Cole 7-8 

Water  a  Necessity  for  Vegetation 23 

Drainage 29 

The  New  System 33 

Stone  Storage  Trenches 33 

Tile                                      36 

Square     "                          36 

Cement   "                          (For  Sand  Lands) 37 

Depth  and  Distance  of  Storage  Trenches 38 

Family  and  Market  Gardens 39 

Lawns 40 

Orchards . 40 

Grass  Lands 41 

Arable  Lands 42 

Artesian  Wells 42 

Swamp  Lands 43 

Workings  of  the  System 44 

Effects  on  Soil. 46 

"    Crops 48 

Builds  up  Soils 50 

Use  of  Hot  Water 56 

Five  Crops  a  Year 57 

Irrigation  in  Florida 65 

Mr.  Cole's  Model  Plot 68 

Reports 69 

French  Methods 86 

Ridits  of  Application 97 

Obituary...  99-103 


298122 


*   PREFHCE, 


TV  CONSTANT  and  increasing  demand  from  every  part  of  the 
world,  especially  from  all  sections  of  our  own  country,  for  a 
cheap  Manual  descriptive  of  Mr.  Cole's  system  of  Drainage  and 
Irrigation,  has  at  last  induced  him  to  intrust  to  me  the  work  of 
arranging  this  book,  he  being  too  ill  at  this  time  to  do  so.  In  its 
.preparation  I  shall  endeavor  to  treat  the  subject  in  a  most  practi- 
cal manner,  and  in  the  fewest  possible  words  necessary  to  the  end 
in  view,  and  yet  complete  enough  that  all  may  fully  understand,  and 
for  themselves  see  its  numberless  advantages  and  possibilities. 

In  the  facts  stated  we  have  been  conservative,  feeling  it  better 
to  under,  rather  than  overdraw  them. 

Speaking  for  Mr.  Cole,  we  extend  to  every  reader  of  this  Man- 
ual an  invitation  to  visit  the  "  Home  on  the  Hillside,'1  and  make 
personal  examination  of  his  work  and  its  results.  The  grounds  are 
open  to  public  inspection  at  all  times. 

A.  P.  COLE. 


Biographical    sketch    of   the    life    and    services    of   the 

Hon.  A.  N.  Cole,  of  the  Home  on  the  Hillside, 

Wellsville,  Allegany  County,  N.  Y. 


CHAPTER  I. 

As  a  frontispiece  to  this  volume,  we  open  its  pages  by  introduction 
of  the  likeness  of  the  originator  of  what  has  been  denominated 
aquaculture,  "the  new  agriculture,"  or  sub-irrigation.  The  relations 
of  father  and  son  existing  between  the  author  of  this  sketch  and  the  origi- 
nator of  the  New  Agriculture,  makes  it  a  matter  of  delicacy  to  undertake 
this  biography,  and  yet,  feeling  as  we  do  that  none  know  the  man  on 
whose  life  we  discourse  better  than  his  firstborn,  we  waive  considerations 
of  delicacy  and  proceed  to  our  work  cheerfully.  It  would  be  impossible  to 
write  out  in  anything  like  detail  even  the  more  striking  features  of  the 
life  of  a  man  of  whom  it  may  be  aptly  said  he  knew  no  youth,  but  entered 
upon  the  work  of  the  full-grown  man  at  the  age  of  fourteen,  knowing  little 
of  rest  or  respite  for  the  full  period  of  three  score  years,  having  wrought 
almost  incessantly  in  one  way  and  another  for  the  good  of  his  fellow-men. 
Inclined  to  leave  to  the  pens  of  others,  as  far  as  may  be,  that  manner 
of  mention  most  commendatory  of  his  work,  we  introduce  at  opening  an 
editorial  appearing  a  few  months  since  in  the  columns  of  "Colman's  Rural 
World,"  as  follows:  "Mr.  Cole  was  born  in  Cattaraugus  County,  N.  Y., 
in  1821,  and  is  no  longer  a  young  man  in  the  matter  of  years.  He  comes 
from  grand  old  stock,  and  inherits  an  amount  of  vitality  which  renews  its 
youth  with  passing  years,  hence  never  gets  old.  The  Plymouth  or  Roger 
Williams  Colony  at  Freedom,  Cattaraugus  County,  N.  Y.,  embraced  rep- 
resentatives of  the  blue  blood  of  nearly  or  quite  all  of  the  early  Pilgrim 
families.  The  first  great  swarm  that  went  out  from  Plymouth  and  Provi- 
dence settled  in  the  Genessee  Valley  and  along  the  Cattaraugus  Creek  in 
the  beginning  of  the  present  century.  Others  followed  until  nearly  all 
the  counties  of  Western  New  York,  North-western  Pennsylvania,  and  the 


DRAINAGE  AND  IRRIGATION, 

Western  Reserve,  Ohio,  were  embraced  in  the  territory  settled  by  this 
class  of  families  with  their  sturdy  New  England  manhood  and  radical 
characteristics.  The  prevailing  sentiment  was  democratic,  though  the 
percentage  in  New  England  was  quite  as  generally  federal  as  democratic. 
A  recent  writer  referring  to  this  matter  says,  'the  Coles  were  fearful 
fighters,  intermarrying  with  the  Standish  and  other  martial  blood.  The 
Roger  Williams  family  and  that  ol  the  Hathaways,  Hoags,  etc.,  were 
Quakers  in  spirit  but  would  fight  like  devils  if  driven  to  it.  This  was  the 
class  of  farmers  who,  hearing  the  guns  at  Bunker  Hill  and  Lexington, 
left  their  oxen  in  the  field  and  plows  in  the  furrow,  rushed  to  their  barns, 
and  seizing  scythes  and  pitchforks,  went  out  and  took  a  hand  in  the  fight. 
This  is  the  stock  from  which  our  subject  comes  and  this  the  blood  he 
inherits." 

That  the  reader  may  take  in  the  situation,  the  author  of  this  sketch 
will  say  that,  to  understand  the  manner  of  blood  represented  in  the 
person  of  the  discoverer  of  the  New  Agriculture,  reference  to  a  volume 
entitled  "  Ancient  Landmarks  of  Plymouth/'  by  William  T.  Davis,  pub- 
lished by  A.  Williams  &  Company,  Old  Corner  Book  Store,  Boston,  in 
1883,  will  disclose  the  fact  that  James  Cole,  of  Cole's  Hill,  Plymouth, 
from  whom  the  subject  of  this  sketch  was  in  direct  line  descended,  was 
found  dwelling  near  Highgate,  London,  in  1616,  who  was  a  great  lover  of 
plants  and  flowers,  and  married  a  daughter  of  Lobel,  the  celebrated 
botanist,  who  was  the  physician  of  James  the  First,  from  whom  the  plant 
lobelia  derives  its  name.  Not  long  after,  said  James  Cole,  having  with 
two  brothers  and  their  families,  emigrated  to  America,  were  found  among 
earliest  of  settlers  at  Plymouth,  James  in  possession  of  lands  on  Cole's 
Hill,  a  spot  as  historic  as  any  perhaps  in  the  Old  Colony.  Of  the  an- 
tiquity of  the  house  in  which  James  Cole  followed  the  occupation  of 
vintner,  the  reader  may  judge  by  the  following  appearing  in  the  diary  of 
Judge  Sewall,  one  among  earlier  jurists  of  Old  Colony  fame.  Judge 
Sewall  says,  at  date  of  March  8th,  1598:  "  Get  to  Plymouth  about  noon, 
and  lodge  at  Cole's.  The  house  was  built  by  Governor  Winslow,  and  is 
the  oldest  in  Plymouth."  Still  more  notable  is  the  name  of  Roger  Wil- 
liams, of  Rhode  Island,  father  of  freedom  and  religious  toleration  in  the 
New  World,  from  whom  in  direct  line  came  Joanna  Williams  Cole,  mother 
of  A.  N.  Cole,  having  been,  as  we  understand  it,  a  great-granddaughter 
of  Joseph  Williams,  great-grandson  of  Roger  Williams.  Nor  was  it  alone 
in  direct  lines  of  blood  and  lineage  that  the  subject  of  our  sketch  inher- 


A  NEW  SYSTEM  OF  AGRICULTURE.  9 

ited  characteristics  such  as  few  men  of  his  day  and  generation  have 
seemed  to  possess  in  eminent  degree.  It  was  E.  V.  Smalley  of  the 
North-west,  whose  life  work  has  so  largely  impressed  itself  on  the  newer 
states  and  territories,  who,  in  a  letter  of  recent  date,  addressed  to  Mr. 
Cole,  says :  "  You  put  me  forcibly  in  mind  of  my  old  friend  Albert  Bris- 
bane, who  held  that  man's  chief  mission  on  earth  was  to  improve,  beau- 
tify, and  adorn  the  planet  on  which  he  lives."  How  early  in  life  the  pas- 
sion developed  in  Mr.  Cole  so  ruling  above  all  others  throughout,  his  love 
for  plants,  fruits,  and  flowers,  we  cannot  say,  but  writing  at  the  age  of 
forty-four  have  only  to  say  that  our  memory  does  not  reach  back  to  a 
time  when  our  father's  delight  was  anywhere  so  great  as  in  home  and 
garden.  Rare  fruits  were  his  special  delight,  strawberries  his  favorite. 
To  find  out  the  way,  and  make  it  known  toothers,  how  to  grow  all  varieties 
of  plants  and  secure  utmost  profusion  and  perfection  was  his  constant 
endeavor.  That  this  disposition  not  only,  but  that  equally  of  the  crusader  in 
moral,  social,  religious,  and  political  progress  came  to  a  marked  degree 
from  that  marriage  and  intermarriage  among  families  of  the  Plymouth 
and  Providence  colonies  discovered  in  genealogical  lines  of  fully  two 
hundred  years,  antedating  the  general  exodus  from  these  colonies  into 
more  western  settlements  mentioned  in  "Colman's  Rural  World,"  an  ex- 
amination of  the  volume  referred  to,  entitled  "Ancient  Landmarks  of 
Plymouth,  will  make  unmistakably  manifest. 

When  we  say  that  the  focus  of  moral,  religious,  and  political  pro- 
pulsion so  characterizing  the  progress  of  the  American  people,  more  es- 
pecially in  the  last  decade  of  the  eighteenth,  and  thus  far  throughout 
the  nineteenth  centuries,  can  be  no  more  becomingly  fixed  than  at  Free- 
dom, Rowland's  Flats,  Arcade,  and  their  vicinities,  where  founded  was 
the  Roger  Williams  Colony  at  Cole's  Settlement,  Cattaraugus  County, 
erecting  churches  and  establishing  schools  in  propagation  of  their  faiths 
in  religion  and  politics,  we  state  what  is  simply  a  fact.  Thence  radi-- 
ating  outward  in  all  directions,  the  influence  of  these  settlers  will  be  plainly 
discovered  throughout  that  region  where  Horace  Greeley  was  found  in 
his  early  life  helping  his  father,  during  his  struggles  in  Wayne,  Erie 
County,  Pennsylvania,  on  the  State  line  opposite  Clymer,  Chautauqua 
County,  N.  Y.,  while  hewing  out  of  the  wilderness  a  home.  William  H. 
Seward  was  acting  as  land  agent  at  Westfield,  Chautauqua  County,  N. 
Y.,  making  history  as  a  co-worker  with  George  W.  Patterson;  and  where 
somewhat  later,  Joshua  R.  Giddings  and  old  Ben  Wade,  in  their  humble 


io  DRAINAGE  AND  IRRIGATION. 

law  office  at  Jefferson,  Ohio,  were  found  breaking  the  fallow  ground  of 
freedom  to  all,  and  born  and  bred  was  James  A.  Garfield  and  others 
without  number,  making  history  for  all  time,  in  and  outside  of  Ohio,  now 
become  emphatically,  in  the  stead  of  Virginia,  the  mother  of  presidents. 
Alongside  of  these  in  Pennsylvania  were  found  the  counties  of  Erie,  Craw- 
ford, Warren,  Potter,  McKean,  Tioga,  Bradford,  Susquehanna,  &c..  where 
that  young  Saul  of  his  day  and  generation,  David  Wilmot,  a  full  head  taller 
than  that  of  any  of  his  brethren,  swayed  sentiment  to  good  degree,  not  only 
throughout  the  Keystone  State,  but  all  over  the  American  Union.  It  is  in 
this  region,  especially  in  the  counties  of  Allegany,  Cattaraugus,  and  Chau- 
tauqua,  where  in  fullest  force  was  early  developed  that  irrepressible  con- 
flict between  freedom  and  slavery,  so  for  a  full  generation,  at  least,  convul- 
sing our  country.  It  is  here,  whether  on  records  of  fame  among  the  living, 
or  on  those  of  marble  and  granite,  are  most  found  the  names  of  families  of 
the  Old  Colonies  of  Plymouth  and  Providence.  Here  it  was  that  A.  N. 
Cole  in  early  childhood,  his  father  and  mother  dying  when  he  was  but 
about  four  years  of  age,  was  brought  out  of  the  woods  and  adopted  by 
Asher  P.  and  Polly  Hickox,  of  Pike,  then  Allegany,  since  Wyoming  County, 
N.  Y.,  his  adoption  having  been  arranged  by  kinsmen.  He  was  about  five 
and  a  half  years  old  when  adopted,  and  during  the  next  ten  years  spent  not 
far  from  four  years  in  all  of  study  at  the  village  school,  where,  such  was  the 
rapidity  with  which  he  made  progress  with  his  studies,  as  to  become  a  won- 
der to  his  teachers. 

Of  the  period  at  which  he  learned  his  letters  he  has  no  recollection, 
but  infers  that  these  were  gotten  at  his  mothers  knee.  Suffice  it  to  say, 
that  from  books  purchased  for  his  reading  by  his  foster  parents,  and  more 
especially  from  a  fine  library  of  the  times,  possessed  by  a  neighboring  lady 
of  culture  and  refinement,  Mrs.  A.  A.  Emery,  he  secured  the  reading  of 
poems,  a  few  works  of  historical  romance,  volumes  treating  on  navigation 
and  discovery,  &c.,  &c.  Among  all  of  these  books  none  made  a  deeper 
impression  than  a  little  volume  entitled  the  "  Life  of  Benjamin  Franklin,  " 
written  by  himself.  Here  he  became  acquainted  with  "  Poor  Richard,"  so 
like  to  Horace  Greeley  of  later  times,  and  from  "  Poor  Richard's  Almanac  " 
the  lad  gleaned  an  amount  of  knowledge  impossible  to  calculate.  He  had 
reached  the  age  of  eleven,  and  somewhat  upward,  when  somewhere  finding, 
we  think,  in  this  renowned  calendar,  a  mention  of  Chinese  agriculture,  he 
was  prepared  to  learn  with  avidity  more  upon  the  subject  as  found  in  one 
of  the  most  remarkable  books  published  up  to  that  period,  to  wit :  the  "Uni- 


A  NEW  SYSTEM  OF  AGRICULTURE.  n 

versal  Geography,"  of  Jedidia  Morse,  which  was  possibly  the  most  compre- 
hensive and  complete  summary  of  geographical  and  historical  events  em- 
bodied in  any  volume  of  the  times  anywhere.  Obtaining  the  book,  under 
the  head  of  "  Chinese  Agriculture,"  page  417,  second  volume,  he  found  the 
following :  "  The  Chinese  agriculture  is  carried  to  a  high  state  of  improve- 
ment. On  the  sides  of  their  steepest  hills  terraces  are  formed,  supported 
by  walls  of  stone,  and  the  whole  mountain  is  cultivated  to  the  summit, 
where  reservoirs  are  sunk,  into  which  rain  waters  are  collected  and  conveyed 
around  the  terraces  down  to  the  base  of  the  mountain.  With  great  toil  the 
people  collect  every  species  of  manure.  Prodigious  numbers  of  old  men, 
women,  and  children  are  constantly  employed  in  the  streets  and  on  the 
banks  of  the  rivers  and  canals,  with  baskets  tied  before  them,  collecting 
every  kind  of  manure.  The  Chinese  farmers  apply  liquid  manure  to  the 
roots  of  their  plants  and  trees.  They  also  steep  their  seeds  in  liquid 
manure  until  they  germinate,  before  they  are  sown." 

This  item  of  knowledge,  touching  the  methods  in  agriculture  practiced 
by  a  people  whose  progress  as  regards  certain  arts  and  sciences  antedates 
those  of  perhaps  any  other  nation,  opened  up  a  vista  of  the  future  to  the 
•eyes  of  the  boy  reading  it,  having  seemingly  the  bringing  out  of  a  system, 
which,  quoting  from  a  leading  editorial  of  the  late  and  lamented  William 
Dorsheimer  of  the  New  York  Star,  appearing  February  nth,  1887,  under 
head  of 

No  MORE  DROUGHT. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  some  months  ago  the  Star  opened  its 
columns  to  the  discussion  of  a  most  interesting  theory  of  the  possible  pre- 
servation of  water.  It  was  Mr.  A.  N.  Cole  of  Wellsville,  Alleghany  County, 
N.  Y.,  who  first  propounded  and  advanced  the  proposition  that  it  was  willful 
waste  to  allow  the  rains  and  snows  to  form  into  streamlets,  rush  into  rivers, 
and  bear  out  to  the  oceans  the  richest  portion  of  the  soil,  often  leaving  ruin 
in  their  course.  He  asserted  that  by  a  simple  adaptation  of  the  lands  adja- 
cent to  the  natural  watersheds  of  the  world,  reservoirs  of  all  sizes  could 
readily  be  obtained,  in  which  the  waters  would  accumulate  and  be  conserved, 
and  from  which,  by  an  inexpensive  system  of  sub-surface  irrigation  and 
drainage,  they  might  be  released  to  moisten  and  feed  the  dry  and  hungry 
earth. 

Mr.  Cole  was  the  life-long  friend  and  associate  of  Horace  Greeley. 
Together  they  worked  out  many  problems  for  the  amelioration  of  their 
fellow  men. 


12  DRAINAGE  AND  IRRIGATION. 

Mr.  Cole  alone  has  survived  to  witness  the  fulfillment  of  a  dream  that 
promises  to  revolutionize  all  agriculture,  horticulture,  forest  culture,  fish 
culture,  manufacturing,  mining,  and  inland  navigation. 

On  his  hillside  farm  at  Wellsville  he  has  already  put  his  theory  into 
practice,  so  far  as  crops  are  concerned,  and  demonstrated  the  feasibility  of 
reserving  a  surplus  of  water  from  the  wet  seasons  for  use  in  times  of  drought. 
He  has  lived  to  see  the  subject  of  aquaculture  taken  up,  discussed,  and  ad- 
vocated by  the  leading  agricultural  journals  of  the  day.  The  Rural  World, 
published  by  United  States  Commissioner  of  Agriculture,  Norman  J.  Colman, 
has  this  to  say  of  the  old  philosopher's  wisdom  and  ingenuity : 

"  There  are  few  sections  of  this  vast  country  where  water  is  not  fur- 
nished naturally  by  means  of  the  rains  or  the  snow,  but  their  coming  is 
comparatively  uncertain,  and  very  often  when  most  wanted,  nay,  when 
absolutely  essential  to  the  production  of  a  crop,  they  are  not  forthcoming. 
Did  the  Creator  ever  intend  that  because  he  sends  a  surplus  now  it  should 
be  permitted  to  go  to  waste  simply  because  it  is  not  for  the  moment 
wanted  ?  " 

We  reprinted  yesterday  a  most  interesting  article  from  the  American 
Angler  which  presents  this  great  subject  in  all  its  most  attractive  lights  to 
farmers  and  kitchen  gardeners. 

We  are  aware  that  Mr.  Cole  has  been  associated  with  vast  enterprises, 
is  a  pioneer  in  great  undertakings.  We  remember  that  he  assisted  in 
putting  the  Republican  party  on  its  legs ;  that  he  outlined  our  Central  Park 
and  foreshadowed  our  systems  of  rapid  transit ;  but  of  all  the  work  that  a 
keen  mind,  an  unflagging  industry,  and  an  unfaltering  faith  can  accomplish, 
we  submit  that  in  thus  understanding  and  defining  the  economies  of  nature's 
water  supply,  he  has  proved  himself  to  be  one  of  the  greatest  benefactors 
of  the  age. 

As,  amid  countless  achievements,  the  one  of  the  New  Agriculture  is 
that  bound  to  live  after  him  for  all  time,  and  the  one  to  which  this  volume 
is  devoted,  no  sketch  of  his  life  would  be  other  than  the  play  of  Hamlet 
with  the  part  of  Hamlet  omitted,  which  failed  to  make  mention  of  the  step 
by  step  leading  him  to  ultimate  discoveiy  and  demonstration  of  his  methods. 
Before  proceeding  further,  we  will  here  say  that,  perhaps  had  the  entire 
world  been  gone  over,  no  child  of  his  age  could  have  been  found  by  the 
time  the  subject  of  this  sketch  had  reached  the  age  of  twelve,  who  had 
looked  more  deeply  down  into  that  cycle  of  the  waters  embracing  the 
mysteries  of  evaporation,  the  formation  of  clouds,  condensing  of  vapors  into 


A  NEW  SYSTEM  OF  AGRICULTURE.  13 

rains  and  dews,  their  congelation  at  certain  altitudes,  precipitation  of  rain- 
falls, the  falling  of  snows,  with  like  causes  and  effects,  inclusive  of  the  origin 
of  springs,  and  all  that  relates  to  the  movement  of  waters  on,  along,  and 
beneath  soils  everywhere  the  world  over. 

Such  was  his  rapt  attention  given  to  looking  into  the  secrets  of  nature, 
and  such  his  constant  reading  of  books,  as  to  make  him,  whether  at  school, 
at  home,  or  among  the  people  of  the  town,  an  object  of  interest.  His  foster 
parents  were  devotedly  attached  to  him,  and  did  all  in  their  power  to  aid 
and  encourage  him  in  the  acquisition  of  knowledge. 

In  nothing,  however,  did  he  seem  in  childhood  to  take  a  deeper  interest 
than  in  the  one  of  parties,  politics,  public  men,  measures,  etc.  Educated 
after  the  strictest  sect  a  Democrat,  or,  more  properly  speaking,  a  Jeffersonian 
and  Jacksonian  Republican,  to  propagate  that  sort  of  faith  and  shun  federal- 
ism as  a  heresy  not  to  be  tolerated,  became  early  a  passion.  Reading  the 
Albany  Argus  and  Evening  Post  weekly,  the  teachings  and  writings  of 
William  Cullen  Bryant,  William  Leggett,  and  others  of  more  advanced 
ideas  of  the  times,  made  him  fundamentally  acquainted  at  an  early  age  with 
the  sort  of  democracy  found  in  the  Declaration  of  Independence,  and  form- 
ing, in  fact,  the  foundation  of  the  Republic.  As  for  Federalists,  Free  Traders, 
and  born  nullifiers,  such  as  John  C.  Calhoun,  Aaron  Burr,  and  their  kith  and 
kin,  the  boy  at  twelve  was  as  antagonistic  as  the  man  of  the  present,  nearing 
that  proverbial  period  of  life  allotted  to  man.  So  decided,  indeed,  has  been 
his  democratic  bias  all  along  through  life,  and  thus  remains,  he  has  never 
been  able  to  become  aught  else  than  a  defiant  fighter  against  the  sort  of 
politics  which  calls  for  subordination  of  individual  conscience  to  dictates  of 
caucus,  cabal,  or  of  star  chamber  emanations.  Of  his  inborn  and  impulsive 
radicalism,  the  reader  may  judge  by  a  single  incident  occurring  at  the  age 
of  thirteen,  when,  entering  the  village  mill,  and  discovering  a  paper  pinned 
upon  the  wall  with  a  few  names  appended  to  it,  all  of  men  of  maturest  years, 
he  read  it,  and  finding  it  a  pledge  to  abstain  from  the  use  of  alcoholic  drinks, 
he  at  once  added  his  name  to  the  list,  and  hence  his  claim  to  being  one  of 
the  earliest  among  temperance  men  now  living  is  well  founded.  Only  a 
year  later,  the  foster  father's  health  having  given  out,  his  business,  that  of 
keeping  a  modest  country  store,  had  to  be  abandoned,  and  at  about  the  age 
of  fifteen  the  lad  bade  adieu  to  school  with  its  lessons,  and  to  the  best  of  his 
ability  set  himself  at  work  to  settle  up  the  business.  To  conclude  that,  at 
this  time,  young  Cole  had  mastered  as  much  of  science  as  perhaps  any  one 
of  his  age  in  the  county  of  Allegany,  and  was  possessed  of  as  large  a  fund 


14  DRAINAGE  AND  IRRIGATION. 

of  knowledge  as  any  in  the  entire  State,  is  at  least  a  reasonable  presumption, 
since  he  had  mastered  Daboll's  arithmetic,  Woodbridge's  geography,  Mur- 
ray's grammar,  all  of  the  common  branches  of  the  times,  as  they  were 
denominated,  had  done  an  amount  of  reading  impossible  to  estimate,  and 
on  quitting  school,  outside  of  his  passion  for  trout  fishing  and  making  ex- 
periments in  growing  plants,  giving  necessary  attention  to  the  settlement  of 
his  foster  father's  business,  knew  no  rest,  but  pushed  on  all  the  more  vigor- 
ously with  his  reading  and  study  of  books,  making  good  beginning  with 
algebra,  chemistry,  botany,  mineralogy,  natural  philosophy,  geology,  etc., 
with  the  elements  of  which  he  became  more  or  less  familiar,  and  had  made 
some  progress  in  Latin,  when,  having  reached  the  age  of  sixteen,  his  foster 
mother,  finding  herself  under  the  necessity  of  breaking  up  housekeeping,  he 
contracted  to  teach  a  winter  school  in  one  of  the  most  benighted  districts  of 
Allegany  County,  comprising  territory  in  the  townships  of  Hume  and  Cana- 
dea,  in  which  was  found  settled  a  few  estimable  families,  but  the  bulk  of  the 
district  made  up  of  what  were  denominated  at  times  "the  lost  nation,"  and 
quite  as  commonly  known  as  "  swamp  angels."  There  were  between 
twenty  and  thirty  scholars  in  the  school,  their  ages  varying  between  ten  and 
twenty;  the  older  ones,  as  a  rule,  being  little  less  than  barbarians.  It  only 
required  five  weeks  of  endeavor  to  teach  such  a  school  before  the  big  boys 
and  girls  of  the  clay-bed  district  were  masters  of  the  situation,  and  the  boy 
schoolmaster  found  himself  as  frequently  out  as  inside  of  the  school-house. 
Reluctantly,  and  yet  from  necessity,  the  stripling  surrendered,  and,  return- 
ing to  the  village  of  Hume,  joined  his  foster-mother,  the  two  securing  board 
at  fifty  cents  per  week  each.  The  late  teacher  himself  again  became  a 
scholar  in  the  village  school,  and  at  the  close  of  that  winter's  term  was  suffi- 
ciently advanced  to  give  lessons  not  only  to  the  hundred  pupils  attending 
the  school,  but  equally  to  his  teacher,  a  roving  Texan  ranger,  who,  by 
chance,  coming  that  way,  had  taken  the  village  school,  which  he  succeeded 
in  teaching  to  conclusion,  amid  as  much  of  fight  and  fury  as  possible  to 
imagine,  the  peace  only  kept,  in  the  meantime,  by  surrendering  the  more 
advanced  classes  to  the  tutorship  of  young  Cole. 

The  early  spring  succeeding,  while  snow  was  yet  on  the  ground  un- 
melted,  the  young  man,  having  decided  to  try  his  fortunes  in  the  West,  left 
Hume  for  Bloomfield,  Ontario  County,  to  visit  friends  before  taking  a  packet 
on  the  Erie  Canal  for  Buffalo  at  opening  of  lake  navigation.  It  was  the 
last  of  April  when  he  crossed  the  gang-plank  of  the  "  Cleveland,"  at  that 
time  one  of  the  chiefest  among  lake  steamers,  and  the  first  of  May  found 


A  NEW  SYSTEM  OF  AGRICULTURE.  15 

the  young  man  in  that  city  of  Ohio  bearing  the  name  of  the  ship  that  car- 
ried him  safely.  As  he  stepped  upon  the  dock  he  found  himself  with  barely 
money  sufficient  to  last  three  or  four  days  by  closest  economy,  and  at  once 
sought  for  some  sort  of  work  to  do  which  would  give  a  living,  however 
scanty,  and  this  he  found  by  contracting  to  keep  in  order  the  editorial 
rooms  of  the  Cleveland  Intelligencer,  a  daily  and  weekly,  published  by 
Benjamin  F.  Andrews,  postmaster  of  a  town  at  that  time  containing  only 
about  six  thousand  population,  with  an  area,  inclusive  of  suburbs,  so  ex- 
tended that  to  estimate  the  ground  covered  by  the  young  city  would  make 
it  incredible  with  every  reader  when  we  add  that,  to  his  duties  in  keeping 
the  editors  rooms  in  order,  were  added  those  of  carrier  to  the  doors  of  city 
subscribers.  His  compensation  for  this  work  was  merely  nominal,  and  by 
the  first  of  June,  the  cholera  having  broken  out,  the  young  man,  exhausted 
with  overwork  and  no  pay — in  fact,  having  been  offered  an  agency  to  can- 
vass for  a  modest  little  monthly,  the  Buckeye  Ploughboy,  subscription  price 
fifty  cents  a  year,  with  commission  of  twenty-five  per  cent,  accepted  with 
alacrity,  and,  from  the  hour  of  doing  so,  set  out  on  that  race  which  has  been 
one  of  undeviating  progress  for  a  period  of  a  full  half  century,  having  few 
parallels  in  American  life.  This  has  not  been  in  the  accumulation  of 
wealth,  since  he  has  seen  much  of  stringency  in  money  matters — much  of 
embarrassment,  in  fact ;  and,  though  he  has  made,  possibly,  more  money 
during  that  fifty  years  which  has  been  absorbed  by  the  rich  and  powerful, 
profiting  by  his  work,  than  any  other  American,  he  has  himself,  up  to  this 
time,  comparatively  little  to  show  of  earthly  possessions,  and  yet  has  lived 
all  the  while  since  the  autumn  succeeding  that  never-to-be-forgotten  sum- 
mer of  1838  in  comfort,  blessed  with  goods  which  come  of  an  abundance 
of  all  required  for  the  wants  of  man. 

Many  a  time  has  the  author  of  this  sketch  listened  to  the  accounts 
given  by  his  father  of  his  experience,  traveling  on  foot  hundreds,  not  to  say 
thousands,  of  miles  over  the  Buckeye  State,  adding  several  hundred  names 
to  the  subscription  list  of  one  of  the  earliest  among  agricultural  and  horti- 
cultural journals  of  the  then  West,  since  Ohio  was  reckoned  in  those  days 
central  among  States  of  the  West.  Since  the  settlement  of  our  country  no 
season  has  proved  more  disastrous  to  crops  than  the  one  in  Ohio  of  1838, 
coming  of  a  drought  so  unparalleled  that,  at  time  of  potato-digging  in  Octo- 
ber, the  tubers  only  averaged,  as  a  rule,  from  the  size  of  a  walnut  to  that  of 
the  butternut,  nor  were  of  value  outside  of  seed  for  the  ensuing  year. 

Fruit  was  abundant,  more  especially  peaches,  which  rotted   upon  the 


1 6  DRAINAGE  AND  IRRIGATION. 

ground  all  over  the  State.  Wheat  matured  early,  and  proved  a  crop  from 
fair  to  middling ;  while  corn  was,  as  a  rule,  a  failure.  So  early  as  July  first, 
such  was  the  universality  and  severity  of  the  drought,  that  the  springs  nearly 
all  disappeared ;  the  creeks,  brooks,  and  rivulets  became  dry  in  their  beds, 
and  great  rivers  shrank  to  comparative  nothingness  in  volume.  It  was  said 
of  the  Sandusky  River  that  it  was  to  be  discovered  only  in  detached  pools? 
and  so  thick  did  the  scum  form  on  the  surface  ot  these  as  to  enable  the 
squirrels  to  cross  them  in  droves,  as  upon  a  bridge.  There  were  but  few 
wells  in  the  State  at  that  period,  and  these  were  generally  dry  from  July  till 
November.  Cattle  and  sheep  died  by  thousands  for  want  of  water ;  the 
swamps  were  made  little  else  than  burning  bogs  of  peat  and  tinder ;  nearly 
all  of  their  timber  destroyed  by  fire.  It  was  shinplaster  days ;  no  bank  bills 
worth  the  mention ;  and  no  metallic  currency  at  all  in  circulation.  The 
only  subscriber  to  the  Plonghboy  paying  for  it  in  silver  was  none  other  than 
the  Hon.  Joshua  R.  Giddings,  who,  alongside  of  Ben.  Wade,  was  found  in 
their  law  office  at  Jefferson,  Ashtabula  County;  and  here  began  an  acquaint- 
ance proving  of  incalculable  value  to  the  then  still  stripling — now  a  veteran 
crowned  with  locks  as  white  as  snow.  "Whence  come  you,  my  boy?"  asked 
Giddings.  "  From  Western  New  York,  Allegany  County,"  was  the  canvass- 
er's reply.  "  Of  New  England  parentage,  I  venture  to  say  ?"  continued  his 
interlocutor.  At  this  the  young  man,  never  averse  to  speaking  of  his  ances- 
try, spoke  of  the  Coles,  of  Cole's  Hill,  Plymouth,  and  pointed  back  to  his 
mother  as  a  descendant  in  direct  line  from  Roger  Williams.  This  was  suffi- 
cient. It  was  Saturday  afternoon,  and  the  "  Old  War-horse  of  the  Western 
Reserve "  invited  the  canvasser  to  spend  Sunday  with  him.  This  invi- 
tation was  joyously  accepted,  and  when,  on  Monday  morning,  he  made  his 
departure,  it  was  with  a  head  full  of  new  ideas,  and  a  heart  more  than  ever 
before  upwelling  with  love  of  liberty.  It  was  only  June  at  this  time,  and, 
before  the  season  was  over,  the  young  man  at  times  made  his  bed  in  the 
fields,  alongside  of  the  shocks  of  wheat  and  corn  ;  and,  while  making  his 
evening  and  morning  meal  of  fruit  and  raw  wheat,  shelled  out  and  eaten 
with  his  then  young  and  firm  teeth,  he  was  put  impressively  in  mind  of 
the  brief  stay  made  at  the  house  of  Giddings,  who,  later  in  1853,  came 
down  to  Western  New  York  and  joined  his  early  disciple  in  pushing  that 
crusade  for  freedom  and  equal  rights  resulting  in  the  greatest  moral, 
social,  religious,  and  political  revolution  in  the  annals  of  time.  Only  a  few- 
days  after  leaving  the  home  of  Giddings  the  fearful  drought  began  of 
which  we  have  made  mention.  It  was  during  its  prevalence  that  the  lad 


A  NEW  SYSTEM  OF  AGRICULTURE.  17 

began  looking  more  deeply  than  ever  into  the  origin  of  springs,  rivulets, 
rivers,  and  lakes,  and  in  contemplating  the  devastations  wrought  by  the 
drought,  began  mentally  inquiring  whether  it  was  not  possible  to  save  and 
store  the  rains  of  spring,  summer,  and  autumn,  as  well  as  the  melting 
snows  of  winter — doing,  in  fact,  what  he  has  done  and  demonstrated  since 
by  his  methods  of  aquaculture,  the  new  agriculture,  or  sub-irrigation — 
more  properly  speaking,  subsoil  irrigation.  That  at  eighteen  years  of  age 
he  had  gotten  more  than  an  inkling  of  his  after- discoveries  well  fixed  in 
his  mind,  let  no  reader  for  a  moment  doubt,  since  that  mention  of  Chinese 
agriculture  found  in  a  geography,  published  several  years  before  he  was 
born,  was  a  something  borne  constantly  in  mind  and  studied  upon,  and 
had  opened  to  him  vistas  of  a  future  at  last  reaching  out  over  all  of  the 
face  of  the  earth. 

The  close  of  September  found  the  young  man  at  the  home  of  an  un- 
cle, Nathan  Cole,  in  Republic,  Seneca  County,  and  here  it  was  arranged 
for  a  winter  school,  the  teaching  of  which  for  four  months,  at  twelve  dol- 
lars per  month,  laid  the  foundation  of  future  and  undeviating  success. 
His  patrons  and  pupils  were  nearly  all  Germans,  "  Pennsylvania  Dutch," 
as  denominated,  and  few  could  speak,  and  none  among  them  worth  the 
mention  could  read,  English  at  all.  It  was,  in  fact,  the  first  English 
school  taught  in  the  district,  and  the  young  teacher  left  his  charge  at  end 
of  his  term  with  the  good-will  and  followed  by  the  blessings  of  parents 
and  children,  making  his  way  to  Michigan,  at  that  time  just  emerging 
from  the  wilderness  and  putting  on  the  vestures  of  Statehood.  A  severe 
attack  of  bilious  fever,  succeeded  by  ague  and  fever,  followed  immediately 
after  reaching  Michigan,  and  necessitated  earliest  possible  resumption  of 
work,  when  the  first  of  June,  1839,  found  the  young  man  teaching  a  sum- 
mer school  at  Northville,  Plymouth  County,  at  two  dollars  per  week, 
boarding  round.  On  reaching  Northville  the  first  object  specially  attract- 
ing his  attention  was  that  phenomenal  flood  of  pure  spring  water,  putting 
him  in  mind  of  the  springs  at  Caledonia,  Livingston  County,  N.  Y.  On 
these  wonderful  springs  are  at  present  located  the  principal  hatching  and 
breeding  ponds  of  the  United  States  Government,  and  it  was  this  remark- 
able outgushing  of  pure  spring  water  at  sources  of  the  Rouge  River,  that 
gave  to  the  place  the  repute  of  being  the  healthiest  in  Michigan,  attract- 
ing to  it  parties  seeking  to  avoid  malarial  influences  so  generally  prevail- 
ing in  most  portions  of  the  West  of  those  days.  Whence  came  these 
great  fountains?  was  the  first  question  arising  in  the  mind  of  him  who 


1 8  DRAINAGE  AND  IRRIGATION. 

seemed  so  born  to  the  following  after  the  waters  that  the  passion  would 
somehow  never  down.  The  young  man  was  not  long  in  making  up  his 
mind  whence  came,  and  from  what  conditions  sprang,  the  wonderful 
springs.  Less  than  a  month  after  beginning  his  school,  among  others 
seeking  to  find  a  healthful  spot  in  which  to  spend  the  summer,  was  M. 
Theodore  Lupien,  a  young  Frenchman  of  eminent  family,  accomplished 
in  manner,  and  having  much  of  learning  acquired  in  best  of  schools.  Only 
a  few  words  of  English  could  he  speak,  and,  placing  himself  under  the 
tutorship  of  the  young  teacher,  with  a  proposal  to  make  a  Frenchman  of 
Cole,  while  Cole  in  turn  was  to  make  an  American  of  Lupien,  as  regarded 
language,  at  least.  The  work  of  education  went  on.  We  had  omitted  to 
mention  the  fact  that  in  teaching  among  the  Germans  of  Ohio,  the  pre- 
ceding winter,  the  schoolmaster  had  gathered  the  fundamentals  of  the 
language  of  the  Fatherland,  and  this,  added  to  rudiments  of  Latin,  helped 
him  on  with  the  French,  and  a  month  had  scarcely  passed  before  the 
teacher  of  that  summer  school,  then  about  eighteen  years  of  age,  would 
have  proven  a  creditable  professor  of  the  French  language  in  most  Amer- 
ican schools  of  the  times.  Not  so  with  his  pupil,  however,  who  made  but 
slow  and  tedious  progress  in  learning  to  read  and  speak  English. 

At  close  of  his  four  months'  term  of  school  A.  N.  Cole  left  Michigan 
for  return  to  the  land  of  his  birth,  reaching  Allegany  and  Wyoming  coun- 
ties in  the  month  of  September,  1839.  Professor  Davis  W.  Smith,  of 
Castile,  Wyoming  County,  having  acquired  an  enviable  reputation  as  a 
teacher,  young  Cole  at  once  availed  himself  of  the  opportunity  of  study  at 
his  school,  and  though  there  was  in  the  school  a  considerable  number  of 
scholars  well  advanced  in  learning,  years  older,  in  most  instances,  than 
Cole,  the  latter,  as  usual,  took  the  lead,  attracting  general  attention  as  a 
student  of  rare  promise.  Among  others  attending  the  school  were  a  son 
and  daughter  of  Professor  Joseph  Wildman,  principal  of  the  first  High 
School  at  Poughkeepsie.  The  family  of  Professor  Wildman  was  one  to 
which  the  subject  of  this  sketch  found  early  attraction,  and  here  it  was 
that,  a  few  months  later,  the  young  man  found  the  home  to  which  his 
heart  to  the  present  hour  turns  back  as  one  of  love  and  beauty  having 
few  equals  anywhere.  Here,  at  the  age  of  two-and-twenty,  he  was  wedded 
to  Margaret  Malvina  Wildman,  and  never  was  union  more  perfect,  and 
never  did  the  lives  of  any  couple  move  more  even  and  happily  on.  The 
fruit  of  this  union  was  four  children,  three  sons  and  a  daughter,  still  living,, 
though  their  mother  left  this  world  for  Paradise,  March  22d,  1880. 


A  NEW  SYSTEM  OF  AGRICULTURE.  19, 

It  was  Joshua  R.  Giddings  who,  in  the  summer  of  1838,  suggested  to 
the  subject  of  this  sketch  the  name  of  Horace  Greeley  as  the  one  thus 
early  giving  evidence  of  becoming  a  second  Dr.  Ben.  Franklin,  and  ad- 
vised the  lad  to  form  his  acquaintance.  This  advice  was  taken,  and  Cole 
wrote  his  first  letters  to  Greeley  in  1839  or  '40,  while  the  latter  was  pub- 
lishing the  New  Yorker.  These  letters  were  cordially  received  by  the 
now  everywhere  admitted  greatest  among  journalists  of  any  age  or  country. 
The  letters  dwelt  mainly  on  subjects  of  social  and  political  reforms,  the 
theories  of  "  Fourier,"  "Brisbane,"  and  others  of  their  ways  of  thinking.. 
In  the  meantime,  both  Greeley  and  Cole  had  become  thorougly  imbued 
with  the  teachings  of  M.  Francois,  Pierre  Guillaume  Guizot,  whose  phi- 
losophies were  reflected  by  his  renowned  society,  claimed  by  many  to 
have  a  beginning  so  early  in  the  ages  to  make  it  impossible  to  trace  its 
origin,  or  fix  the  date  of  its  first  appearance,  and  yet  here  is  what  has  been 
said  of  it  as  matter  of  history.  The  name  of  the  society  was  "Aide  toi  et 
le  del  T^aidera"  signifying,  "Heaven  will  help  those  who  help  them- 
selves." 

This  was  the  motto  of  a  political  society  having  for  its  object  the  attain- 
ment of  ends  best  defined  by  a  common  platform  now  occupied  in  sub- 
stance by  the  Grange,  as  well  as  by  the  farmers,  foresters,  fish  culturists, 
and  other  industrial  classes  in  alliance,  seeking  such  reforms  in  govern- 
ments everywhere  as  embodied  in  the  following  general  declaration  of 
principles : 

Profoundly  impressed  that  we,  the  farmers  of  America,  who  are  united 
by  the  strong  and  faithful  ties  of  financial  and  home  interests,  should, 
when  organized  into  an  association,  set  forth  our  declarations  of  inten- 
tions ;  we  therefore  resolve, 

1.  To  labor  for  the  education  of  the  agricultural  classes  in  the  science 
of  economic  government  in  a  strictly  non-partisan  spirit,  and  to  bring, 
about  a  more  perfect  union  of  said  classes. 

2.  That  we  demand  equal  rights  to  all  and  special  favors  to  none. 

3.  That  we  return  to  the  old  principle  of  letting  the  office  seek  the 
man,  instead  of  the  man  seeking  the  office. 

4.  To  indorse  the  motto,  "  In  things  essential  unity,  and  in  all  things 
charity." 

5.  To  develop  a  better  state  mentally,  morally,  socially  and  finan- 
cially. 


20  DRAINAGE  AND  IRRIGATION. 

6.  To  create  a  better  understanding  for  sustaining  our  civil  officers 
in  maintaining  law  and  order. 

7.  To  constantly  strive  to  secure  entire  harmony  and  good  will  to 
all  mankind,  and  brotherly  love  among  ourselves. 

8.  To  suppress  personal,  local,  sectional,  and  national  prejudices,  all 
unhealthful  rh  airy,  and  selfish  ambition. 

9.  The  brightest  jewels  which  it  garners  are  the  tears  of  widows  and 
orphans,  and  its  imperative  commands  are  to  visit  the  homes  where  lacer- 
ated hearts  are  bleeding ;  to  assuage  the  sufferings  of  a  brother  or  sister ; 
bury  the  dead ;  care  for  the  widows  and  educate  the  orphans  ;  to  exercise 
charity  toward   offenders;  to  construe  words  and  deeds  in   their  most 
favorable  light ;  granting  honesty  of  purpose  and  good  intentions  to  others, 
and  to  protect  the  principles  of  the  National  Farmers'  Alliance  and  Co- 
operative Union  until  death.     Its  laws  are  reason  and  equity ;  its  cardinal 
doctrines  inspire  purity  of  thought  and  life ;  its  intention  is,   "  Peace  on 
earth,  good  will  toward  men." 

At  the  opening  of  this  sketch  occurs  the  introductory  on  the  part  of 
Colman's  Rural  World,  which  we  now  supplement  by  the  following  from 
the  same  source : 

Mr.  Cole  commenced  life  in  the  second  quarter  of  the  present  cen- 
tury, a  time  which  is  remembered  as  producing  many  of  the  greatest  men 
that  have  figured  in  the  history  of  this  country,  and  he  has  been  of  them  a 
part,  their  daily  associate  and  correspondent,  and  a  co-worker  with  them 
in  making  history  and  the  nation's  greatness.  With  a  memory  of  extra- 
ordinary retentiveness,  and  a  more  than  ordinarily  active  and  vigorous 
mind,  he  naturally  retains  all  of  the  past,  and  when  the  occasion  requires, 
pours  it  forth  in  a  volley  and  volume  which,  for  force  and  fervor,  is 
seldom  equalled.  He  reminds  one,  indeed,  of  his  old  and  life-long 
friend,  Horace  Greeley,  for  neither  his  tongue  or  pen  are  capable  of  idle- 
ness, not  even  when  asleep  ;  indeed,  we  never  met  so  prolific  a  writer  or 
one  having  greater  facility  of  expression. 

"  This,  then,  is  the  author  of  the  *  The  New  Agriculture,  or  The 
Waters  Led  Cap^tive,'  by  whose  genius  and  indomitable  perseverance 
we  believe  the  desert  is  to  be  made  to  blossom  as  the  rose,  the  fruit  and 
vegetable  gardens  to  produce  three  or  four  times  the  quantity  and  two 
or  three  times  the  size  heretofore  known,  and  the  waters  to  be  so  saved 
and  held  as  that  drouths  shall  be  unknown  as  long  as  rains  fall  or  rivers 
run.  We  have  heretofore  expressed  the  opinion  that  there  was  no 


A  NEW  SYSTEM  OF  AGRICULTURE.  21 

more  sense  in  permitting  a  waste  of  waters  when  they  came  as  one  of 
nature's  largest  and  best  gifts  to  man,  than  in  allowing  the  crop  of  corn 
or  wheat,  of  fruit  or  vegetables,  to  rot  whert  they  grew.  We  are  of  that 
opinion  still.  And  whilst  we  read  of  the  many  advances  in  science  and 
scientific  commerce,  in  art  and  literature,  in  education  and  morals  of  the 
Victorean  era;  whilst  we  enumerate  the  wonders  of  steam,  of  electricity, 
the  printing  press,  and  of  agricultural  and  commercial  progress  of  the 
past  fifty  years,  we  look  to  the  remaining  years  of  the  century  to  per- 
fect this  still  more  magnificent,  this  grandest  of  all  enterprises,  the 
new  agriculture,  or  the  waters  held  captive. 

"  Six  years  ago  Mr.  Cole's  neighbors  were  astonished  by  the  growth  • 
of  fruits  and  vegetables  of  marvelous  sizer  beauty,  profusion  and  per- 
fection on  the  heretofore  barren  and  rocky  hillside  of  his  suburban 
home.  He  was  understood  at  first  as  making  experiments  in  under- 
drainage  ;  nor  did  his  nearest  neighbors  and  most  intimate  friends  have 
any  intelligent  conception  of  the  methods  under  which  he  was  proceed- 
ing— those  of  the  sub-surface,  subterranean  or  underground  irrigation — 
but  he  brought  that  rocky  hillside  into  such  a  state  of  fertility  that 
finer  fruits  and  vegetables  than  were  ever  seen,  and  in  greater  profusion,, 
were  produced  therefrom ;  then  and  not  till  then  did  he  patent  the  sys- 
tem, and  give  to  the  world  the  grandest  idea  that  man  in  agriculture  ever 
conceived.  In' thus  writing  we  are  conscious  of  the  fact  that  many  other- 
wise excellent  men  and  able  writers  have  both  ridiculed  the  system  and 
villified  the  man,  but  he  will  live  to  see  them  take  it  all  back  and  acknowl- 
edge that  he  is  not  only  right,  but  the  benefactor  of  his  age  and  people." 

As  politics  and  parties  should  have  nothing  in  fact  to  do,  as  such, 
with  ways  and  means  by  which  the  industrial  classes  are  to  find  their 
way  up  and  out  into  conditions  of  universal  thrift  and  prosperity,  what 
we  have  said  touching  the  society  of  Guizot  should  be  accepted  there- 
fore as  best  of  reasons  why  in  a  political  sense  no  further  mention  be 
made  of  Mr.  Cole's  identification  therewith. 

This  book  is  devoted  to  the  New  Agriculture,  the  fundamentals  of 
which  are  best  bought  out  in  a  letter  of  Dr.  John  Swinburn  found  on  its 
pages.  This  is  the  water  feature  whereby  towns,  cities,  all  portions  of 
the  world,  indeed,  are  to  be  supplied  with  an  abundance  of  pure  spring 
water.  It  is  the  Croton  water-shed  pointed  out  in  conclusion  by  the 
pen  of  General  Charles  A.  Dana  of  the  New  York  Sun,  appearing  at 
date  of  November  i4th,  1888. 


22  DRAINAGE  AND  IRRIGATION. 


THE  GREATEST  OPPORTUNITY. 

Now  is  the  time  for  the  Vanderbilts,  or  any  other  set  of  enlightened 
millionaires,  to  come  forward  and  undertake  here  in  this  neighborhood 
an  experiment  whose  successful  working  would  confer  upon  the  human 
family  a  greater  benefit  than  any  novelty  or  invention  or  discovery  since 
the  introduction  of  printing. 

We  refer,  of  course,  to  the  New  Agriculture,  the  great  system  of 
subterraneous  irrigation,  of  feeding  the  roots  of  plants  from  beneath 
with  a  perpetual  supply  of  moisture.  This  system  was  discovered  by 
that  irrepressible,  electrical  veteran,  Asahel  Nichols  Cole  of  Allegany 
County,  and  the  right  place  to  make  a  conspicuous  and  triumphant  dis- 
play of  its  marvellous  results  is  here  at  the  doors  of  this  metropolis, 
among  the  hills  of  Westchester.  The  land  is  there,  its  long  slopes  turn- 
ing to  the  southern  sun ;  the  living  springs  of  water  are  there ;  the 
climate  is  favorable,  the  situation  peerless,  and  all  that  is  necessary  is 
that  some  great  and  far-seeing  man,  with  as  much  money  as  he  has  brains, 
should  devote  a  little  thereof  to  a  work  whose  success  will  not  merely 
make  its  capitalist  glorious  and  famous,  but  also  increase  his  wealth 
beyond  the  wildest  dreams  of  avarice.  No  matter  how  many  millions 
he  may  have  already,  the  New  Agriculture  would  add  to  his  store,  and, 
in  addition,  the  blessings  of  the  human  family,  the  cry  of  joy  from  pover- 
ty relieved,  the  shout  of  hope  from  hearts  that  dread  and  doubt,  would  be 
given  to  him  in  full  measure  and  exulting  chorus. 

What  wise  millionaire,  what  rich  and  great  philanthropist,  desirous 
of  being  the  benefactor  of  the  human  race,  of  putting  an  end  to  hunger 
and  poverty,  will  come  forward  and  lay  hold  of  this  unexampled  oppor- 
tunity to  gain  for  himself  imperishable  renown,  and  to  confer  upon  his 
grateful  countrymen  the  benefits  of  universal  prosperity  and  boundless 
abundance  ? 


CHAPTER  II. 


Water  a   Necessity  for  Vegetation. 

Years  ago,  when  a  large  portion  of  the  country  was  covered  with 
forest,  falling  leaves,  decaying  woods  and  other  vegetation  protected  the 
soil  making  it  porous  and  light,  with  power  to  absorb  and  hold  the  rain- 
fall almost  in  its  entirety.  Floods  and  freshets  were  prevented,  springs 
and  streams  gave  a  full  and  steady  flow,  while  the  rain-fall  was  more  abund- 
ant and  regular.  Soil  then,  when  cleared  for  crops,  filled  with  decay- 
ing remains  of  the  removed  woods,  readily  took  up  and  held  for  a  longer 
time  the  waters  which  fell  upon  it,  and  drew  also  upon  the  surplus  mois- 
ture contained  in  the  forest  lands  adjoining  or  surrounding  it.  Then  crops 
had  a  constant  supply  of  water,  and  yield  was  far  in  excess  of  later  years, 
and  of  superior  quality.  The  forests  have  been  removed  ;  their  rain-ab- 
sorbing soil  has  given  place  in  large  part  to  pasture  and  meadow  lands, 
with  their  compact  surface  and  almost  water  proof  mat  of  roots.  These 
lands  have  the  power  and  capacity  to  absorb  but  a  very  small  percentage 
of  the  falling  rain,  and  it  is  lost  to  crop  and  soil  in  wash  and  flood. 
Springs  have  failed ;  streams  have  lost  their  volume  in  large  part  if  not 
wholly  during  the  heat  of  summer ;  evaporation  from  them  being  shut  oft, 
and  that  from  the  soil  increased.  The  annual  rain-fall  has  steadily  de- 
creased, drying  winds  circulate  more  freely  and  largely,  drouth  becomes 
more  frequent,  severe,  and  extended.  Every  farmer  in  the  majority  of 
years  feels  that  some  at  least  of  his  crops  would  be  greatly  benefited  by 
an  increased  supply  of  water  during  the  growing  season. 

Market  gardeners  and  fruit  growers,  whose  crops  should  on  the  aver- 
age reach  in  value  several  hundred  dollars  per  acre  annually,  experience 
large  losses  which  might  be  avoided  were  a  supply  of  water  at  all  times 
available.  Not  only  is  the  average  yield  of  crops  growing  less  yearly, 
even  in  favorable  seasons,  but  drouth  is  becoming  so  general  that  crops 
suffer  and  are  in  whole,  or  large  part,  destroyed  about  once  in  three  years. 

Every  tiller  of  the  soil  knows  that  water  is  indispensable  to  the 
growth  of  his  crops,  and  if  it  is  not  supplied,  the  crop  correspondingly 
suffers. 


24  DRAINAGE  AND  IRRIGATION. 

There  are  some  facts,  however,  touching  vegetable  growth  which  are 
not  generally  known,  but  should  be  understood  by  every  cultivator  of 
lands.  Henry  Stewart  in  his  book,  "Irrigation  for  Farm,  Garden  and  Or- 
chard," states  them  in  the  following  plain  and  direct  manner.  "  No  water, 
whether  it  be  in  the  state  of  liquid  or  vapor,  can  enter  into  any  part  of  a 
plant  other  than  its  roots.  The  common  idea  that  water  or  watery  vapor 
is  ever  absorbed  through  the  leaves  of  a  plant  is  unfounded.  The  solid 
portion  of  the  plant  consists  of  matter  which  enters  into  it  only  while  in 
solution  in  water.  Water  is  the  vehicle  by  which  the  solid  part  of  a 
plant  is  cairied  into  its  circulation  for  assimilation.  If  water  is  not  ade- 
quately supplied,  an  insufficient  quantity  of  nutriment  only  will  be  carried 
into  the  circulation  of  the  plant,  and  its  growth  will  be  stunted  or  arrested 
altogether. 

Growing  plants  contain  from  70  to  95  per  cent,  of  water.  To  the 
extent  that  water  supplies  this  necessary  constituent  of  a  growing  plant, 
it  is  an  actual  nutriment. 

The  quantity  of  water  that  must  pass  through  the  roots  of  a  plant  of 
our  ordinary  farm  crops,  and  to  be  transpired  through  the  leaves,  to  carry 
it  from  germination  to  maturity,  is  equal  to  the  depth  of  twelve  inches 
over  the  whole  soil  covered  by  the  crop.  This  is  the  requirements  of  an 
average  crop  upon  a  moderately  well-cultivated  soil.  If  the  crop  is 
stimulated  to  extraordinary  growth  by  large  applications  of  manure  or 
other  fertilizers,  a  still  greater  supply  of  water  is  needed  to  meet  the  de- 
mands of  the  crop." 

These  facts  so  plainly  stated  show  the  most  potent  factor  in  the  pro- 
duction of  crops  to  be  soil  moisture.  The  presence  of  water  renders  plant 
growth  possible,  as  under  the  proper  conditions  it  renders  soil  fertility 
available  to  the  plant  and  insures  full  development  in  growth.  Under 
old  and  present  methods  of  farming  and  gardening  this  moisture  is  not 
supplied.  The  rains  of  fall,  winter  and  early  spring  come  at  times  when 
crops  derive  but  little  if  any  benefit  from  them.  The  rain-falls  which 
occur  between  seed  time  and  harvest  are  not  only  generally  short  of  the 
required  amount,  but  the  evaporation  of  the  growing  season  exceeds  the 
rain-fall,  and  after  having  absorbed  that,  takes  from  soil  and  crop  the 
little  moisture  left  from  the  rains  of  winter  and  spring.  This  being  ex- 
hausted, crops  not  only  thirst  but  starve. 

So  important  has  become  this  matter  of  soil  moisture,  and  so  inade- 
quate the  supply  for  the  summer  months,  that  the  practical  farmers  of 


A  NEW  SYSTEM  OF  AGRICULTURE.  25 

this  State  who  are  in  charge  of  the  State  Agricultural  Experiment 
Station,  declare  in  their  Report  of  1887,  that  "  to  control  the  water  of  the 
soil,  even  to  some  extent,  is  to  the  farmer  a  matter  of  great  conse- 
quence." Agricultural  papers,  writers,  and  speakers  are  agitating  the 
subject  and  urging  a  change  of  present  methods.  Most  emphatic  of 
these  utterances  are  those  of  Colonel  H.  W.  Wilson,  in  a  recent  address 
before  the  Massachusetts  Horticultural  Society,  as  follows:  "About 
50,000  gallons  of  water  are  ordinarily  required  to  give  an  acre  of  land  a 
proper  saturation,  and  no  irrigation  can  be  at  all  satisfactory  which 
attempts  to  do  any  less.  As  the  gardener  has  often  observed,  both  in 
the  green  house  and  in  the  garden,  a  slight  watering  often  proves  only 
an  aggravation,  and  benefit  is  derived  from  a  thorough  drenching;  so 
in  our  climate,  with  ordinary  soils  such  as  are  found  to  be  advantageously 
cultivated,  it  will  require  about  two  inches  in  depth,  over  the  entire  sur- 
face, to  make  a  useful  irrigation  of  almost  any  crop.  This,  with  what  will 
be  lost  by  leakage  and  evaporation,  will  amount  to  50,000  gallons.  For 
vegetables  and  small  fruits  the  value  of  water  would  be  greatly  increased 
in  dry  years,  while  for  strawberries  the  benefit  would  be  greater  than  any- 
thing of  which  cultivators  have  hitherto  dreamed.  Drouth  is  the  constant 
dread  of  the  strawberry  grower,  as  the  strawberry  is  a  thirsty  plant  and 
seldom  gets  water  enough." 

Irrigated  lands  are  lands  that  always  produce  large  crops,  regard- 
less of  the  seasons  or  rains.  It  is  a  mistake  to  suppose  that  irrigation  is 
only  suitable  or  profitable  in  regions  devoid  of  rain.  While  an  absolute 
necessity  in  arid  regions,  it  is  a  great  help  to  successful  agriculture  in 
every  section  of  the  earth.  The  farmer  who  resorts  to  irrigation  and 
drainage  is  always  certain  of  a  large  yield ;  he  loses  no  seed,  labor,  or 
crop  by  dry  or  wet  seasons.  Crops  grown  under  these  circumstances  are 
always  harvested  in  good  condition  and  are  of  superior  quality,  conse- 
quently bring  higher  prices. 

The  following,  from  the  Drainage  and  Farm  Journal,  published  at 
Indianapolis,  Ind.,  by  J.  J.  W.  Billingsley,  is  so  pertinent  to  the  question 
of  the  necessity  for  an  ample  water  supply  we  make  quotation  therefrom  : 

"  There  was  little  call  for  considering  the  need  of  irrigation  when  the 
soil  was  fresh  from  the  covering  of  the  leafy  mold.  Then  it  readily 
retained  moisture.  The  greater  difficulty  was  to  free  the  soil  from  ex- 
cesses of  moisture.  Subsequent  cultivation  has  changed  the  mechanical 
condition  of  the  soil,  and  the  removal  of  the  forest  timber  has  exposed 


26  DRAINAGE  AND  IRRIGATION. 

the  surface  to  the  drying  winds,  until  drouths  are  more  frequent  and  the 
effects  are  oft-times  disastrous  to  the  growing  crops. 

Farmers  have  been  casting  about  for  a  remedy,  and  it  has  been 
found  largely  in  the  underdrainage  of  the  soil  to  a  sufficient  depth  to 
remove  from  the  soil  spaces  the  excess  of  water,  retaining  only  the  water 
of  moisture,  promoting  the  capillary  flow  of  moisture  to  the  surface  from 
greater  depths  in  the  soil,  and  the  condensation  of  moisture  from  the 
atmosphere  in  its  circulation  through  the  soil  and  subsoil.  But  the  hus- 
bandman finds  that  there  is  still  a  greater  amount  of  moisture  needed  to 
promote  the  growth  and  largest  productiveness  of  some  crops  than  is 
supplied  by  underdrainage,  or  tile  drainage,  as  it  is  commonly  called ; 
which  is  especially  true  in  market  gardening,  where  the  value  of  the  crop 
often  aggregates,  or  should  aggregate,  several  hundred  dollars  per  acre. 
To  fall  below  a  remunerative  yield  is  disastrous.  The  soil  may  be  under- 
drained,  manured  and  brought  to  the  desired  fineness  in  the  division  of 
the  particles,  but  the  extra  supply  of  water  must  be  provided  for  the  extra 
yield  required  to  make  the  business  pay. 

To  do  this,  many  devices  have  been  brought  into  use  to  provide  the 
needed  extra  supply  of  water.  Trenches  or  canals  have  been  dug  miles 
in  length  to  convey  the  water  to  the  point  where  it  is  needed,  then  lateral 
surface  trenches  convey  it  to  the  area  of  land  to  be  irrigated,  spreading  it 
out  into  smaller  and  still  smaller  temporary  trenches,  until  the  supply  is 
made  as  uniform  as  the  amount  of  water,  time,  and  labor  required  will 
allow. 

Wells  have  been  dug  and  the  water  pumped  into  trenches  to  be  dis- 
tributed to  various  parts  of  the  ground.  Engines  have  done  the  work  of 
pumping  the  water  into  tanks  built  upon  elevated  frame-work,  and  the 
water  drawn  off  to  irrigate  the  soil  by  means  of  pipes,  hose,  lead  troughs, 
etc.  Others  have  tried  the  sprinklers  drawn  by  horse-power,  and  men 
have  tried  the  hand  sprinkler,  but  it  is  expensive,  and  most  frequently  not 
up  to  the  measure  of  effectiveness  desired. 

How  frequently  it  occurs  that  the  labor  of  years  may  depend  for  its 
desired  remuneration  upon  the  supply  of  moisture  that  is  furnished  to 
growing  and  maturing  crops  in  the  short  period  of  ten  days.  If  the  sup- 
ply of  water  from  rainfalls  is  cut  off  for  that  length  of  time  when  the  crop 
is  maturing  the  loss  may  prove  ruinous.  The  question  of  the  hour  with 
the  market  gardener  and  small  fruit  grower  is,  how  shall  this  supply  be 
provided  for  certainly?" 


A  NEW  SYSTEM  OF  AGRICULTURE.  27 

This  question  of  a  uniform  and  adequate  water  supply  is  not  alone  a 
question  of  importance  to  the  individual  land-owner,  but  also  of  State 
and  Nation,  and  as  such  is  receiving  at  the  hands  of  the  leading  men  and 
public  journals  of  the  day  the  consideration  its  importance  entitles  it  to. 
In  the  N.  Y.  Tribune,  date  June  23d,  appeared  the  following: 

"PROPOSED  MOUNTAIN  RESERVOIRS. 

The  rapidity  with  which  in  this  age  of  occupation  and  excitement 
even  the  deepest  impressions  are  effaced  is  strikingly  exemplified  in  the 
fact  that  though  scores  of  bodies  are  still  mouldering  beneath  the  unex- 
plored ruins  of  Johnstown,  the  great  disaster  has  faded  out  of  public 
attention.  While  the  horror  was  still  fresh  there  was  an  eager  desire  to 
learn  if  other  dams  were  ready  to  give  way  before  an  extra  pressure,  and 
the  demand  for  investigation  and  prompt  precautions  against  similar 
catastrophes  was  universal.  But  already  the  search  and  the  discussion 
have  been  practically  abandoned. 

These  observations  are  suggested  by  an  article  in  the  current  number 
of  Garden  and  Forest,  upon  the  vast  scheme  of  mountain  reservoirs  pro- 
posed by  the  Director  of  the  Geological  Survey  as  a  means  of  irrigating 
the  dry  plains  beneath  them.  There  is  little  doubt  that  engineering  skill 
is  competent  to  carry  out  the  plans  of  Major  Powell,  and  that  a  great  ter- 
ritory can  be  rendered  fruitful  through  the  accumulation  and  distribution 
of  water  which  otherwise  would  be  largely  wasted ;  but  there  are  serious 
objections  which  ought  at  least  to  be  considered  far  more  attentively  than 
they  yet  have  been  before  the  Government  goes  further  in  the  direction 
of  committing  itself  to  this  project.  As  Garden  and  Forest  suggests, 
there  is  something  to  be  said  in  favor  of  the  decrees  and  processes  of 
Nature  as  opposed  to  the  impatient  purposes  of  man,  but  we  are  not  de- 
sirous now  to  dispute  the  immediate  utility  of  the  plan  for  making  the 
desert  blossom.  The  question  of  safety  is  of  the  first  importance.  As 
The  Tribune  remarked  directly  after  the  Conemaugh  disaster,  and  as 
Garden  and  Forest  now  urges,  the  chief  element  of  danger  in  an  elevated 
lake  artificially  formed  lies  in  the  difficulty  of  maintenance,  not  of  original 
construction.  Secret  and  obscure  agents  of  destruction  are  constantly 
endeavoring  to  undermine  the  strongest  fabric,  and  the  obstacles  to  an 
adequate  determination  of  their  success  or  failure  are  practically  insuper- 
able. But  aside  from  this  constant  menace,  sudden  and  irresistible  forces 
may  be  developed  at  any  moment.  Our  contemporary  points  out  that  an 


28  DRAINAGE  AND  IRRIGATION. 

earthquake  so  slight  as  to  be  otherwise  harmless  might  make  a  breach  in 
one  of  these  dams  through  which  the  sea  of  water  behind  it  would  pour  out 
in  an  instant,  and  it  furthermore  supplies  this  most  suggestive  illustration 
of  what  might  follow  the  proposed  cutting  away  of  the  mountain  forests: 
'The  Ardeche  is  a  small  mountain  stream  in  France,  and  yet  the  sudden 
melting  of  the  snows  in  the  deep  valleys  at  its  sources  so  swelled  its  cur- 
rent that  it  once  delivered  i, 305,000^,000  cubic  yards  of  water  into  the 
Rhone  in  three  days.  For  this  short  period  it  flowed  with  a  volume  like 
the  Nile,  and  what  reservoir  could  be  trusted  to  restrain  an  outpouring  of 
this  sort  ? ' 

These  are  considerations  which  ought  not  to  be  lightly  dismissed. 
We  are  far  from  failing  to  appreciate  the  beneficent  transformation  which 
might  reasonably  be  expected  to  result  from  an  artificial  distribution  of 
moisture  on  the  arid  land  which  Major  Powell  designs  to  fructify,  but  we 
do  insist  that  several  momentous  arguments  against  his  plan  ought  to  be 
satisfactorily  answered  before  the  first  step  is  taken  toward  putting  it  into 
practical  operation." 

An  even  distribution  of  moisture  over  the  arid  lands  would  not  only 
cause  them  to  blossom,  but  would  by  even  and  extended  evaporation 
cause  cloud  formation  and  rain-fall.  In  this  book  will  be  described  a 
system  which  will  receive,  store  and  distribute  the  waters  of  the  mountain 
streams  fed  by  melting  snows  of  mountains,  snow-clad  during  a  part  or 
the  whole  of  the  year.  Not  only  will  it  store  the  waters  unattended  by 
the  dangers  of  the  plan  spoken  of  in  the  above  quoted  article,  but  it  has 
the  advantage  of  immediate  distribution,  and  that  beneath  the  surface 
where  it  will  do  the  greatest  amount  of  good,  and  be  much  less  subject 
to  rapid  evaporation. 


CHAPTER    III. 


Drainage. 

If  with  a  system  of  irrigation  a  proper  system  of  drainage  be  also 
combined,  the  tiller  of  the  soil  will  remove  two  adverse  influences  against 
which  he  now  contends.  Water  is  a  good  servant  but  a  bad  master. 
To  make  it  our  servant,  not  only  must  be  it  supplied  in  sufficient  quanti- 
ties, but  it  must  be  supplied  in  such  a  way  as  to  perfectly  control  its 
effects  upon  soil  and  crop. 

Stagnant  water  upon  or  near  the  soil's  surface,  works  injury  in  many 
ways.  It  prevents  early  working  and  seeding,  remains  cold  and  be- 
comes sour,  generally  destroying  the  seed  of  crops  put  upon  the  ground, 
or  drowns  out  and  rots  the  root  of  any  which  may  chance  to  start. 
With  the  coming  of  hot  weather,  baking  of  the  surface  follows,  cracks  and 
fissures  in  the  soil  admit  the  burning  rays  of  the  sun  and  the  heated  air, 
and  partial,  if  not  total,  destruction  of  the  crop  is  the  result. 

Drain,  and  the  stagnant  water  is  carried  off,  the  texture  of  the  soil 
improved  by  being  made  more  porous,  drier,  looser,  and  more  friable 
and  light ;  air  and  the  rain-fall  are  more  perfectly  absorbed,  and  the  soil 
made  ready  for  tillage  some  weeks  earlier  by  soil  heat.  Still  farther  we 
quote  from  the  Drainage  and  Farm  Journal. 

"  The  amount  of  heat  in  the  soil  is  a  matter  of  the  highest  impor- 
tance to  the  farmer.  The  reader  need  not  be  told  that  it  has  a  great 
influence  upon  the  germination  of  seeds  and  the  growth  of  plants.  A 
certain  amount  of  heat  in  the  soil  is  essential  to  germination  and 
growth.  A  certain  amount  of  heat  is  also  essential  to  the  decomposition 
of  carbonic  acid  by  plants.  Indian  corn  will  not  decompose  carbonic 
acid  at  a  temperature  lower  than  about  fifty-nine  degrees.  If  the  tem- 
perature of  the  soil  can  be  raised,  plants  will  grow  faster.  Our  farm 
crops  may  wither  in  midsummer;  but  this  is  not  because  the  soil  is  too 
warm,  but  because  there  is  a  lack  of  moisture  in  it,  or,  what  is  oftener 
the  cause,  the  atmosphere  is  so  dry  that  the  moisture  is  exhaled  too  rapid- 
ly from  the  plant.  It  would  be  very  advantageous  to  increase  the 


30  DRAINAGE  AND  IRRIGATION. 

warmth  of  the  soil  in  the  spring,  for  by  so  doing  we  could  get  plants 
started  several  days  earlier,  and  their  growth  would  be  more  rapid.  In 
the  North,  especially,  the  seasons  are  too  short  for  many  plants;  and 
even  those  which  mature  well  enough  would  make  a  heavier  yield  if 
started  earlier  and  forced  along  for  the  first  few  weeks  by  a  warmer  soil. 

Drained  soils  are  warmer  than  undrained  ones,  because  much  of  the 
water  which  passes  through  them  would  otherwise  be  evaporated ;  and 
this  evaporation,  it  must  be  remembered,  requires  enough  heat  to  make 
the  water  into  vapor.  The  amount  of  heat  thus  used  is  quite  large.  It 
is  likely  equal  to  that  produced  by  burning  two-thirds  of  a  ton  of  coal  per 
day  for  each  acre  on  an  average  throughout  the  year.  If  this  heat  were 
not  absorbed  by  the  water,  it  would  be  largely  absorbed  by  the  soil,  if 
all  of  it  were  not.  The  specific  heat  of  water  is  greater  than  that  of  the 
soil — five  times  as  great  as  humus,  seven  times  as  great  as  loam,  eight 
times  as  great  as  clay,  and  ten  times  as  great  as  sand.  Hence,  more 
heat  is  required  to  warm  up  a  certain  weight  of  water  than  to  raise 
the  same  weight  of  soil  to  the  same  temperature.  As  drains  remove  an 
excess  of  water  in  the  soil,  in  the  spring  at  least,  it  would  remove  water 
that  otherwise  would  take  heat  from  the  earth.  More  than  this,  water  is 
a  very  poor  conductor  of  heat,  and  when  the  soil  is  wet,  as  in  the  spring, 
the  heat  will  penetrate  much  more  slowly  than  if  the  water  were  removed. 
In  Prussia  it  has  been  officially  determined  that  on  an  average  the  snow 
there  melts  a  week  earlier  on  drained  than  on  undrained  land ;  and  the 
difference  would  not  be  less  in  this  country.  A  difference  of  ten  to  fif- 
teen degrees  in  the  temperature  of  drained  and  undrained  soils  has  fre- 
quently been  noticed  ;  and  the  constantly  higher  temperature  of  drained 
soils  is  doubtless  responsible  for  much  of  the  larger  growths  upon  them." 

Many  good  points  have  and  can  be  given  in  favor  of  under-drainage. 
Of  these  the  following  three,  by  Professor  R.  T.  Brown,  are  among  the 
strongest  we  have  seen  : 

"  i st.  A  clay  soil  finely  pulverized  and  throughly  dried  will  hold 
from  80  to  100  per  cent,  of  its  weight  in  water  before  the  same  will  drip 
from  it.  This  water  of  sub-saturation,  known  in  common  language  as 
the  moisture  of  the  soil,  cannot  be  reduced  by  drainage,  it  can  be  re- 
moved only  by  evaporation.  But  at  this  point  the  water  is  adhering  to 
the  particles  of  clay,  and  the  interspaces  between  the  particles  of  clay  are, 
or  should  be,  filled  with  air.  This  is  a  condition  of  the  first  importance 
in  regard  to  the  fertility  of  the  soil.  But  in  a  state  of  saturation  these 


A  NEW  SYSTEM  OF  AGRICULTURE.  31 

interspaces  are  filled  with  water,  and  of  course  the  air  is  excluded.  Now, 
as  this  water  of  saturation  can  penetrate  the  subsoil  but  slowly,  if  at  all, 
it  must  be  removed  by  evaporation  from  the  surface.  But  as  the  surface 
dries,  the  water  from  below  rises  by  capillary  attraction  to  fill  the  place 
of  that  removed,  and  this  leaves  a  partial  vacuum,  as  no  air  can  enter 
from  below  to  fill  the  space  of  the  displaced  water.  The  consequence 
is  that  the  softened  particles  of  clay  are  drawn  together,  and  by  cohesion 
the  clay  becomes  a  solid  mass.  Of  course,  the  interspaces  thus  oblite- 
rated diminish  the  volume  of  the  clay,  and  this  is  manifested  by  the 
gaping  cracks  that  show  themselves  in  the  clay,  dried  by  surface  evapora- 
tion. These  cracks  measure  the  amount  of  consolidation  in  the  drying- 
clay.  Now  if  the  water  can  escape  below,  the  air  follows  the  descending 
water  and  fills  the  pores  of  the  clay  as  the  water  vacates  them,  and  con- 
sequently there  is  no  consolidation  of  the  clay.  The  admission  of  air 
from  above  is  an  important  factor  in  the  beneficent  influence  of  tile 
drainage. 

2nd.  This  free  ventilation  of  the  soil  is  the  secret  of  the  effect  of 
tiling  in  time  of  drouth.  A  finely  pulverized  soil  has  a  power  of  condens- 
ing moisture  from  the  atmosphere  that  circulates  freely  through  it.  This 
can  be  readily  demonstrated  by  experiment.  Take  about  five  pounds  of 
good  soil,  well  dried  and  finely  pulverized — put  it  into  a  small  basket 
after  carefully  weighing  it  and  expose  it  in  some  unsheltered  place,  on  a 
clear  summer  night.  Weigh  it  again  in  the  morning,  and  perhaps  you 
will  be  surprised  to  find  that  the  five  pounds  of  soil  has  gained  from 
one  to  two  ounces  in  weight  from  the  water  absorbed.  That  is  ap- 
parently a  small  gain,  but  when  we  apply  the  ratio  to  the  area  of  an  acre 
of  fine  soil  a  foot  in  depth,  it  will  amount  to  barrels  of  water.  The 
capacity  of  air  to  hold  moisture  is  measured  by  its  temperature.  Of  a 
clear  night  the  earth  loses  heat  by  radiation  very  rapidly,  and  the  air 
entering  it,  whether  from  above  or  below,  is  soon  reduced  to  the  tempera- 
ture of  soil,  and  of  course  deposits  the  water  it  was  able  to  hold  at  a 
higher  temperature,  on  the  same  principle  that  dew  is  deposited  on  grass 
when  it  is  cooled  by  radiation  of  heat.  At  the  depth  of  three  feet  «or 
more  this  deposition  of  moisture  is  chiefly  in  the  day  time,  as  at  that 
depth  surface  radiation  of  heat  has  but  little  effect.  If  the  clay  is  ren- 
dered porous  by  a  system  of  through  drainage,  the  air  will  penetrate  it 
from  every  direction,  and  whenever  the  earth's  temperature  falls  below 
the  temperature  of  the  air,  water  will  be  deposited  if  the  air  is  saturated. 


32  DRAINAGE  AND  IRRIGATION. 

There  has  been  much  speculation  on  this  subject,  but  theories  apart, 
every  farmer  knows  that  in  a  drought  the  hard  road  side  will  dry  to  a 
greater  depth  than  the  adjacent  cornfield  that  he  is  cultivating.  Last 
year's  drought  demonstrated  that  properly  tiled  grounds  produce  fair 
crops,  while  on  undrained  clay  land  the  crop  was  nearly  a  total  failure. 

3rd.  There  is  another  advantage  in  drainage  that  is  of  prime  import- 
ance, though  it  is  generally  overlooked.  The  fineness  of  the  particles 
composing  a  soil  is  an  important  element  of  fertility.  The  fertility  of 
bottom  land,  especially  that  which  has  been  deposited  from  back-water, 
depends  chiefly  on  its  extreme  fineness.  Now,  in  a  cultivated  field,  where 
the  water  which  falls  on  it  is  carried  away  by  surface  drainage,  either  with 
or  without  open  ditches,  it  is  always  muddy — indeed,  loaded  with  the  fine 
particles  of  soil  held  in  suspension.  If  that  water  had  been  filtered  into 
an  under  drain  it  would  have  been  as  clear  as  a^mountain  spring." 

If  we  stand  by  the  roadside,  or  by  open  ditch,  in  time  of  a  freshet,  we 
see  the  torrent  of  muddy  water  carrying  to  the  streams  and  lowlands  tons 
of  the  best  part  of  the  soil. 

How  long  can  lands  endure  this  waste  and  not  lose  their  vitality,  be- 
coming what  is  known  as  worn-out  lands  ? 

Other,  though  perhaps  lesser,  benefits  follow  drainage,  and  have  not 
only  made  it  desirable  but  profitable.  Among  the  benefits  above  re- 
ferred to,  and  the  first  in  importance,  is  that  of  lightening  up  the  soil ;  a 
condition  which  allows  it  to  absorb  more  moisture  in  times  of  heavy  rain- 
falls than  the  more  compact  soils  of  under-drained  lands  would  do.  To 
the  extent  this  is  done,  drainage  is  desirable ;  but  with  this  small  benefit, 
a  large  and  serious  loss  to  soil  and  crop  is  entailed  by  the  drains  imme- 
diately carrying  from  off  and  out  of  the  lands  all  the  water  of  the  fall  and 
spring  rains  and  the  melting  snows  of  winter,  over  and  above  the  small 
percentage  held  in  the  soil.  Not  alone  is  the  surplus  water  lost,  but  it, 
in  its  course  down  through  and  away  from  the  land,  carries  with  it  ele- 
ments of  fertilization  natural  to  the  soil,  or  contained  in  the  rains  and  melt- 
ing snows,  as  well  a.s  a  large,  and  the  most  valuable  parts  and  elements  of 
the  manures  and  fertilizers  applied  to  the  lands  by  the  tiller.  These  escap- 
ing waters  will  in  nearly  every  instance  be  found  to  be  a  strong,  powerful, 
and  valuable  liquid  manure. 

In  districts  where  tile  drainage  has  been  extensively  adopted,  it  has 
been  found  that  springs  and  wells  in  many  instances  fail. 

This  is  an  inevitable  result  of  direct  drainage  whether  on  surface  or 


A  NEW  SYSTEM  OF  AGRICULTURE. 


33 


beneath  it.  It  is  the  surplus  water  held  in  marshy  places,  or  sinking  to 
some  subterranean  pool  which  furnishes  the  supply  and  keeps  them  living. 
Mr.  Cole  by  his  method  drains  the  surface  of  producing  soil  perfectly,  and 
gathers  the  surplus  water  in  storage  to  feed  soil  and  crop  by  capillary  flow, 
or  spring  and  well  by  percolation. 


CHAPTER 


The    New    System. 

The  principles  and  processes  of  this  new  system  are  so  simple  and 
plain  that  the  farmer  of  average  intelligence  can  not  only  understand  and 
apply  it,  but,  having  so  conformed  soils  as  to  set  the  system  in  operation, 
he  may  leave  it  to  run  itself,  which  it  will  do,  day  and  night,  year  in  and 
year  out,  summer  and  winter  alike ;  and  so  perfect  is  its  work  at  all  times, 
that  it  results  in  the  utmost  possibilities  of  production. 

The  system  is  alike  applicable  to  flat  or  hill  lands,  and  its  operation 
on  one  is  as  certain  and  successful  as  on  the  other.  It  is  applicable  to  all 
soils,  adapted  to  lands  in  and  on  which  are  found  stone,  or  soil  free  of 
them ;  to  arid  districts,  or  to  sections  where  the  rains  and  snows  of  fall, 
winter,  and  spring  are  ample.  For  each  of  these  conditions  the  principle 
and  results  are  the  same ;  some  minor  points  as  to  materials  used  in  con- 
struction, depth  of  drainage  and  of  soil  over  the  stored  waters,  being  the 
only  changes  to  consider.  These  we  will  treat  under  proper  heads.  For 
a  general  description,  we  will  give  it  as  applied  by  Mr.  Cole  on  his  hill- 
side, where  stone  were  abundant  and  used  in  construction. 

A  trench,  one  yard  wide  and  four  feet  deep,  was  opened  along  the 
hill  side,  crossing  the  plot  a  distance  of  about  twelve  rods.  Two  rods 
below  this  and  parallel  with  it,  another  of  the  same  dimensions  was  con- 
structed, and  so  on  down  the  slope.  At  the  bottom  of  these  were  loosely 
placed  cobble  and  blocky  stone,  until  the  trench  was  nearly  half  filled, 
then  smaller  stone  were  laid  over  these,  finer  ones  then  added,  until  a 
comparatively  even  surface  resulted.  Next  came  shingling  with  flat  stone, 


34 


DRAINAGE  AND  IRRIGATION. 


two  layers  from  end  to  end,  breaking  joints,  being  required.  Over  these 
was  placed  a  cover  of  sods,  weeds,  straw,  or  best  available  material,  to 
prevent  the  fine  earth  from  filling  the  crevices  between  the  stone.  The 
excavated  soil  was  then  spread  over  all,  the  clay  being  the  first  returned 
to  the  trenches.  The  remaining  surface  and  subsoil  was  pulverized  and 
admixed,  all  fine  stone  being  raked  out,  when  the  trench  was  filled  to  a 
point  slightly  above  the  original  surface.  This  was  done  so,  when  settled, 
all  should  be  even. 

As  these  trenches  were  dug  they  were  connected  by  overflow  or 
drainage  trenches,  three  in  number,  one  at  each  end,  and  one  in  the 
middle.  These  were  sunk  in  the  soil  about  eighteen  inches,  and  being 
filled  with  fine  stone  raked  from  the  soil  to  a  depth  of  about  six  inches, 
shingled  and  sodded  the  same  as  the  reservoir,  till  the  entire  hillside 
presented  a  uniform  surface  throughout.  This  conformation  of  soils  results 
in  two  water-tables  beneath,  one  of  percolation  from  the  bottom  of  re- 
servoir trenches,  the  other  of  overflow  and  filtration  in  times  of  surfeit. 
The  lands  thus  fitted  leave  shingling  of  reservoirs  and  overflow  below 


_/?. 


No.   i. 


the  reach  of  spade,  plow  or  other  tools  used  in  working  the  land,  but 
left  ample  room  for  the  roots  of  all  growing  vegetation.  These  trenches 
completed  and  connected,  formed  elongated  reservoirs,  which  filled  by  the 


A  NEW  SYSTEM  OF  AGRICULTURE. 


35 


water  courses  cut  off,  or  by  the  melting  snows  and  early  rains,  thus  hold- 
ing in  storage  thousands  of  barrels  of  water  which  would  otherwise  have 
been  lost  in  wash  or  drainage,  and  at  the  same  time  so  saturating  sub- 
soils as  to  convert  them  into  store-houses  filled  with  moisture  to  be  found, 
at  all  times  available  for  use  in  the  growth  of  vegetation.  If  the  reader 
will  take  the  above  brief  description  and  consider  it  carefully  in  connec- 
tion with  the  cuts  illustrating  the  system  he  will  find  no  trouble  in  under- 
standing the  principles  of  construction. 

The  cut  on  page  34  will  show  how  to  arrange  the  system  on 
hill-side  or  sloping  lands,  when  stone  are  plenty  for  use  in  trenches 
and  over-flow  drains,  and  the  soil  is  underlaid  with  hard-pan,  or  any 
other  firm  subsoil. 


No.  2. 


In  the  absence  of  fine  stone  in  the  soil  to  be  used  for  overflows, 
gravel  from  the  pit  or  other  sources  should  be  used  and  if  neither  are 
available,  tile  should  be  substituted.  We  prefer  tile. 

Cut  No.  2,  illustrates  the  system  when  applied  to  very  steep  lands 
which  are  terraced,  used  either  for  grapes,  small  fruits  or  ornamental 
shrubs  ;  it  shows  arrangement  of  narrow  terraces  with  a  single  trench,  or 
wide  terrace  with  double  trenches. 

Level  lands  are  laid  out,  trenched  and  connected  in  the  same  way, 
the  only  thing  necessary  being  some  point  from  which  the  surplus  waters 
can  be  drawn  off  at  the  desired  depth  beneath  the  surface  soil.  This  out- 
let may  be  made  from  anyone  of  the  trenches  in  the  system.  The  waters 
in  the  trenches  cannot,  raise  above  the  overflow  or  drain  trenches,  and 
when  below  them,  distribute  themselves  evenly  through  the  subsoil.  If 


36  DRAINAGE  AND  IRRIGATION. 

there  is  no  point  where  drainage  can  be  readily  secured,  sink  a  dry  well  to 
where  the  water  will  pass  off. 

Use  of  Tile- — The  use  of  round  tile  in  the  system  of  sub-irrigation  is 
suggested  to  meet  the  wants  of  those  who  may  wish  to  provide  for  the 
sub-irrigation  of  small  tracts  where  the  soil  is  level  and  stone  are  not  to  be 
had  in  sufficient  quantities  or  in  any  quantity  worth  mentioning.  Also 
in  lands  not  underlaid  by  retentive  subsoils. 

The  greater  ease  of  making  round  tile  and  preserving  the  form  per- 
fectly, leads  us  to  favor  (for  the  purpose  of  sub-irrigation)  the  use  of 
large  round  tile,  6,  8,  10,  12,  or  15  inches  in  size. 


No.  3. 

Cut  No.  3  represents  tile  as  used. 

A  A  represents  the  large  tile  reservoirs  and  B  B  the  drainage  line  of 
tile  laid  above  and  across  the  reservoir  tile.  The  large  reservoir  pipe 
should  be  laid  on  a  level  and  closed  at  each  end.  The  water  passing 
out  slowly  through  the  joints  of  the  pipe.  The  clay  near  the  joints  will 
soon  become  puddled  so  that  the  water  would  percolate  through  it  slowly 
when  laid  in  clay.  If  laid  in  sandy,  light  or  porous  soils,  the  joints 
should  be  puddled  sufficiently  to  prevent  rapid  escape  of  the  waters.  A 
small  escape  at  the  joints  in  addition  to  that  which  will  pass  through  the 
porous  tile,  will  be  ample  and  effective.  At  the  point  where  they  cross 
it  is  intended  that  connections  be  made  by  means  of  openings  in  both 
the  reservoir  and  overflow  or  drainage  line  of  tile.  The  latter  may  be 
constructed  of  three-inch  tile  and  laid  at  such  distances  apart  as  the 
character  of  the  soil  may  require. 

Square  Trencher — When  small  plots  are  to  be  fitted,  or  the  nature 
of  the  soil  is  such  that  there  is  danger  of  the  trenches  filling  with  silt,  a 
square  tile  can  be  used  for  the  storage  trenches.  The  trench  can  be 
opened  and  the  top  plate  taken  off,  and  the  silt  thrown  out  with  com- 
parative ease. 


A  NEW  SYSTEM  OF  AGRICULTURE. 


37 


In  sections  where  lumber  is  cheap,  any  planking  which  last  well 
beneath  the  soil  may  be  used.  Round  three-inch  tile  will  here  also  an- 
swer for  overflows. 


No.  4. 


Cut  No.  4  represents  the  arrangement  of  the  square  trenches  on  hill- 
side and  flat  lands. 

Cement  Trenches. — On  all  sand  lands,  when  the  sand  is  deep  and 
leaches  rapidly,  trenches  are  opened,  and  the  bottoms  and  sides  made 
nearly  tight  by  spreading  a  thin  layer  of  mortar  over  the  bottom,  and  up 
the  sides  as  high  as  desired.  The  mortar  is  made  by  mixing  one  part 
Portland  cement  and  seven  parts  sand.  To  cement  the  bottom,  set  a 
curbing  of  loose  boards  and  pour  in  the  mortar  and  level  to  the  desired 
depth.  Cement  sides  in  same  way. 

The  foregoing  description  and  cut  illustrate  fully  the  methods  of 
applying  the  system. 

The  next  thing  to  consider  is  depth  of  soil  to  be  left  over  and  above 
trenches  and  overflow  drains.  Not  only  is  it  best  to  vary  this  according 
to  the  different  uses  to  which  the  land  is  to  be  put,  but  as  different  soils 
have  different  capillary  powers,  depth  must  vary  accordingly.  For 
general  purposes,  we  would  recommend  the  following  depths  at  which  to 
put  the  overflows  and  drains. 

In  muck  lands 1 8  inches. 

In  garden  soils 20       " 

In  sand         " 12  to  15       " 

In  clay          "     18  to  20       « 

When  lands  are  laid  out  for  special  purposes,  the  character  of  the 
growth  to  be  made  upon  it  must  be  considered.  For  all  shallow-root- 
ing vegetation  the  soil  should  have  less  depth  than  for  deep-rooting. 


38  DRAINAGE  AND  IRRIGATION. 

For  shallow  growths  the  soil  should  be : 

In  muck Not  less  than  15  inches  nor  over  24  inches. 

in  garden  soil "      "    "     20       "  "        30       " 

In  sand  soil "         "     10       "  "        16 

In  clay  soil 4t         "     18       "  "        26 

The  following  table  is  a  good  guide  by  which  to  go  in  laying  out 
lands : 

Muck  will  lift  water  in  about  30  days 1 8  inches. 

Garden  soil  "  "  "         "  28     '* 

Sand  'k  "  "         "  10  '" 

Clay  "  "  "         "  28     " 

Depth  and  Distance. — The  depth  and  distance  apart  of  the  storage 
trenches  are  not  governed  by  arbitrary  rules,  but  the  following  general 
rules  should  be  observed : 

In  sinking  the  main  or  storage  trenches,  the  bottoms  of  them, 
regardless  of  material  used,  should  be  sunk  below  the  freezing  point,  and 
should  be  from  end  to  end  at  a  water  level,  and  when  this  is  done  the 
stored  waters  are  kept  several  degrees  warmer  than  the  surface  soil  and 
the  air  above. 

Evaporation  from  them  keeps  the  soil  from  other  than  very  shallow 
freezing ;  also  helps  it  to  warm  some  weeks  earlier  in  the  spring  and 
permits  it  to  be  worked  from  two  to  four  weeks  sooner  than  it  otherwise 
could.  Size  of  storage  trenches,  or  storage  tile,  and  the  distance  apart 
at  which  they  are  placed,  will  depend  upon  the  quantity  of  water  desir- 
able to  store. 

On  lands  where  the  water  supply  must  depend  wholly  upon  the  stored 
waters  of  winter's  snows  and  early  spring  rains,  more  trench  capacity  is 
necessary  than  when  the  system  can  be  supplied  by  some  regular,  unfail- 
ing source. 

Lands  used  for  family  or  market  gardens,  where  crops  follow  in  suc- 
cession the  season  through,  lands  devoted  to  small  fruits,  especially 
strawberries,  fancy  lawns,  flower-beds  and  small  shrubbery,  will  require 
more  water  than  lands  devoted  to  grass,  grains,  potatoes  or  other  general 
farm  crops,  and  should  have  more  storage  capacity. 

The  closer  the  storage  trenches  are  placed  together,  and  the  greater 
their  size,  the  more  water  they  will  store,  and  there  is  no  danger  of  hav- 
ing this  quantity  too  great.  If,  in  applying,  the  storage  trenches  are  put 


A  NEW  SYSTEM  OF  AGRICULTURE.  39 

at  greater  distances  apart  than  is  desired  or  desirable,  additional  trenches 
can  be  at  any  time  put  between  the  original  ones,  and  connected  with 
the  overflows.  In  putting  in  storage  trenches,  we  would  advise  the  set- 
ting at  either  end  of  the  trench,  at  the  head  of  the  system,  a  wooden  box, 
about  six  inches  square,  or  a  six-inch  tile,  rising  about  a  foot  above  the 
surface  of  the  ground. 

Through  this  may  be  seen  how  much  water  is  in  the  trenches  or 
waters  charged  with  certain  elements,  or  for  certain  purposes  may  be  run 
into  the  system.  If  a  large  territory  is  covered  put  them  at  other  points. 

For  Family  and  Market  Gardens,  small  fruit  growing,  etc.,  the 
system  should  be  applied  with  a  view  to  storage  of  all  water  possible,  that 
they  may  be  ample  to  furnish  all  the  moisture  crops  of  this  kind  require, 
and  that  every  particle  of  manures  and  fertilizers  put  upon  the  ground 
may  be  converted  from  solid  to  liquid  forms.  Put  the  storage  trenches 
in  as  close  together  as  possible,  or  as  you  can  at  first  afford  to  do.  Carry 
the  bottoms  below  the  freezing  point,  and  make  overflow  connections 
ample  to  carry  all  the  water  from  trench  to  trench  without  rising  into 
the  soil  above. 

Put  in,  at  the  head  of  the  system,  the  upright  box  or- tile  before 
mentioned,  that  you  may  run  into  storage  all  the  waters  from  roofs  of 
buildings  within  reach  of  the  plot ;  also  liquid  manures  and  house-slops, 
which  should  be  carefully  utilized.  Free  all  liquids  of  their  solids  before 
letting  them  into  the  storage  trenches.  Establish  as  near  the  head  of  the 
system  as  possible  a  mulch  vat,  made  by  setting  on  edge  boards  to  the 
desired  height,  staking  them  firmly  on  sides ;  no  bottom  is  necessary. 
Into  this  vat  throw  everything  of  a  mineral  or  organic  character  useful 
for  manure  that  can  be  procured.  Stable  manure,  weeds,  muck,  leaves, 
night-soil,  leather  scraps,  tobacco  stems,  lime,  ashes,  plaster,  bones,  and 
bone  dust.  There  need  be  no  fear  of  losing  ammonia  by  adding  lime. 
The  lime  is  needed  for  the  rapid  decomposition  of  the  manure. 

With  every  rain  leaching  takes  place  directly  from  this  vat  into  the 
storage  trenches,  and  the  water  is  rich  in  plant  food. 

All  solids  too  heavy  for  capillary  attraction  to  lift,  are  deposited  in 
the  soil  above  the  trenches  as  the  water  passes  down  through  it.  For 
vegetable  and  fruit  growing,  the  soil  over  the  trenches  should  be  from  18 
to  24  inches  in  all  soils  other  than  sand.  This  depth  gives  deep  rooting 
where  necessary,  and  to  shallow-rooting  vegetation  ample  moisture  by 
capillary  flow.  Soils  filled  with  stone  should  be  deep  plowed,  or  better 


40  DRAINAGE  AND  IRRIGATION. 

still  on  small  plots,  spaded  and  forked,  that  the  stone  may  all  be  taken 
out,  whether  used  for  construction  of  other  trenches  or  not.  Stone  in  the 
soil,  especially  those  near  the  surface,  interfere  with  the  proper  rooting 
and  downward  growth  of  plants,  and  under  some  conditions,  cause  fungus 
and  other  plant  diseases,  being  particularly  fatal  to  strawberry  plants. 
Removing  the  stone  and  working  the  soil  tends  to  giving  a  compact,  fine 
producing  surface  soil  which  holds  and  draws  waters  in  capillary  flow 
moreabudantly  than  coarser  soils,  or  those  filled  with  stone,  and  plants  of 
garden  and  small  fruit  varieties  require  an  abundant  supply  of  moisture. 

Lawns. — By  this  system  lawns  can  be  carpeted  with  a  fine,  velvety 
green  grass,  starting  earlier  in  spring,  and  never  ceasing  in  growth  until 
killed  by  the  frosts  of  winter,  and  when  well  protected  by  snow  will  remain 
green  all  winter.  Put  in  storage  trenches  as  is  done  for  garden  purposes 
in  every  way.  Turn  into  them  all  the  waters  which  can  be  so  led,  and 
supply  whenever  desired  liquid  manures.  This  saves  surface  dressing  at  any 
time  other  than  in  winter,  when  the  manures  put  on  will  protect  the  grass, 
and  the  teachings  of  it  will  be  deposited  in  soil,  or  stored  in  reservoirs 
to  feed  the  growth  of  early  spring.  Over  the  system  here  the  soil  should 
not  be  more  than  twelve  inches,  as  grass  thrives  best  on  soils  cool  and 
at  all  times,  full  of  moisture. 

The  more  generous  the  water  supply  to  grass  the  better  the  growth 
and  color,  as  long  as  the  supply  is  moving,  and  not  stagnant  water.  Flow- 
ering plants  and  shrubs,  when  thus  supplied  with  food  and  drink,  reach 
perfection  in  growth  and  blossom. 

Orchards. — Fruit  trees  make  rapid  growth  of  wood,  shed  their  old 
bark,  become  freed  from  scale  and  the  insects  they  harbor,  have  few  if 
any  off  years,  put  out  more  blossoms,  develop  more  fruit,  and  ripen  it 
off  in  beauty  and  perfection.  Disease  is  less  likely  to  attack  a  tree,  and 
if  it  does  so,  can  be  much  more  readily  and  perfectly  checked.  Hiber- 
nating pests  which  infest  fruit  trees,  stinging  blossom  and  fruit,  will  not 
enter  and  remain  in  the  moist  soils  in  any  number,  but  should  they  do  so 
can  with  their  spawn,  be  readily  destroyed  by  special  applications  carried 
through  the  soil  by  the  circulating  waters. 

In  orchard,  and  among  fruit  trees  of  all  varieties,  the  trenches  or 
tile  should  be  as  large  and  of  as  great  storage  capacity  as  possible. 
Trees  should  be  as  far  apart  as  the  greatest  distances  recommended  by 
nurserymen,  and  the  trenches  located  between  them— a  single  trench 
to  each  row  and  that  exactly  in  the  center  of  the  space  between  rows. 


A  NEW  SYSTEM  OF  AGRICULTURE.  41 

When  too  near,  the  roots  of  a  tree  are  apt  to  put  out  a  mass  of  small, 
sap  roots,  which  enter  and  choke  up  the  trenches.  Give  them  distance, 
and  the  power  of  capillary  attraction  will  draw  all  the  necessary  water  to 
the  tree,  and  the  root-growth  be  checked.  Of  irrigated  orchards,  Mr. 
Henry  Stewart  in  his  valuable  book  says  : 

"  It  is  doubtful  if  there  is  a  single  orchard  or  vineyard  in  the  United 
States,  except  California,  Utah  or  Colorado,  subjected  to  a  systematic 
irrigation.  At  the  same  time  it  is  doubtful  if  there  is  any  country  in  the 
world  in  which  irrigation  could  be  more  profitably  applied  to  fruit  culture 
than  here.  The  experience  of  orchardists  proves  that  drought  is  accom- 
panied by  destructive  attacks  of  insects.  How  far  these  depredations 
might  be  prevented  by  irrigation  cannot  be  predicted,  but  it  is  beyond 
doubt  that  the  vigor  of  growth  that  would  result  from  a  sufficient  supply 
of  moisture  to  the  roots  would  greatly  mitigate  the  effects  of  these  attacks. 
The  apple  trees  that  never  have  an  '  off-year  '  are  those  grown  near  bodies 
of  water.  A  California  vineyardist  who  irrigated  his  vines  immediately 
raised  his  product  to  eight  tons  of  grapes  per  acre,  and  greatly  improved 
in  quality." 

When  the  supply  of  water  to  the  system  depends  wholly  upon  the 
rains  and  melting  snows,  there  is  no  danger  of  the  amount  being  too  great 
for  tree  and  fruit,  as  the  annual  rainfall  is  never  in  excess — even  when  all 
held — of  the  amount  trees  require.  If  other  supply  of  water  is  provided, 
care  should  be  taken  in  its  use,  as  the  penalty  for  an  excessive  irrigation 
is  a  crop  of  fruit  of  inferior  quality,  watery,  soft,  and  without  flavor.  A 
good  rule  is  to  irrigate  four  times  a  year  only — at  the  starting  of  the  first 
growth,  at  the  blossoming,  at  the  setting  of  the  fruit,  and  at  the  period 
when  the  fruit  commences  to  color. 

Grass,  and  other  general  farm  crops,  do  not  require  the  careful  pre- 
paration of  soil  necessary  and  advisable  for  gardens  and  small  fruit  lands. 

In  applying  the  system  for  ordinary  farm  crops,  give  as  great  storage 
capacity  as  possible,  as  the  more  water  stored  the  greater  the  benefits. 
When  the  storage  trenches  are  completed  and  the  connections  for  over- 
flow made,  return  the  excavated  soil,  plow  the  entire  plot  and  plant  or 
seed  as  desired. 

As  the  system  receives,  holds,  and  returns  to  the  crop  the  waters  of  rain 
and  snow,  a  complete  change  in  the  character  of  the  soil,  its  color,  tem- 
perature and  power  of  production  will  be  seen  to  gradually  and  surely 
take  place.  This  change  is  absolute  and  sure,  caused  by  the  soil's  filtering 


42  DRAINAGE  AND  IRRIGATION. 

out  animalcule  and  other  elements  ;  the  fertility  of  the  waters  is,  as  it 
were,  screened  and  strained  into  the  land,  enabling  it  to  nourish  vegetation. 

Grass  abundantly  supplied  with  water  is  one  of  the  most  profitable 
crops  grown,  requiring  much  less  labor  and  always  finding  a  ready  cash 
market.  This  system  grows  grass  to  its  utmost  perfection  and  limit  of 
production,  as  it  enables  the  waters  to  enter  the  soil  and  holds  it  there, 
keeping  it  cool  and  supplying  the  constant  moisture  grass  requires  for 
perfect  growth. 

Arable  Lands. — As  on  these  lands  a  water  supply  must  be  had,  the 
necessity  for  water  storage  does  not  exist  in  as  great  a  degree,  and  the  tile 
or  trenches  for  distribution  of  the  water  beneath  the  surface  may  be 
larger  or  smaller — according  to  judgment.  Here  size  must  be  governed 
by  extent  of  tract  to  be  irrigated  and  amount  of  water  to  be  carried 
beneath  it. 

Lay  out  the  grounds  in  parallel  trenches,  and  in  these  put  the  dis- 
tributing tile  on  a  water  level,  and  connect  at  alternate  ends.  By  an 
upright  tile  at  head  of  system  provide  for  running  the  water  in,  and  at  the 
foot  of  system  close  the  tile  that  the  water  may  be  held  and  forced  out 
by  its  own  pressure  at  joints  into  the  soil.  Eighteen  inches  in  all  but  very 
sandy  and  gravelly  lands  is  a  good  depth  at  which  to  lay  the  tile,  as  this 
permits  the  soil  to  hold  sufficient  water  for  the  crops,  without  sinking 
below  the  power  of  capillary  attraction,  or  coming  so  near  the  surface  as 
to  interfere  with  tillage  or  be  subjected  to  immediate  evaporation. 

In  rainless  sections,  or  districts  nearly  so,  evaporation  is  much  more 
rapid  than  in  others,  and  the  loss  of  waters  supplied  in  surface  irrigation 
is  a  very  large  percentage.  Put  your  water  below  the  roots  of  crops  and 
evaporation  is  in  very  large  part  checked,  and  the  land  never  bakes,  but 
keeps  cool,  moist  and  loose.  One-fourth  the  water  used  underground,  is 
better  than  the  whole  on  the  surface,  and  the  saving  which  can  be  thus 
made  will  alone  pay  all  costs  of  application.  Where  the  rainfall  of  winter 
is  copious,  by  constructing  storage  trench  of  large  capacity  the  rains  may 
all  be  held  for  spring  and  summer  growth  of  crops. 

Artesian  Wells. — In  Texas,  Florida,  Colorado,  and  many  of  the  other 
Southern  and  Western  States  and  Territories,  artesian  wells  are  readily 
obtained  and  may  be  used  when  necessary  or  desirable  as  feeders  to  this 
system.  When  they  are  used  and  wholly  depended  upon  for  water  supply 
the  system  can  be  put  in  with  smaller  storage  capacity,  but  in  every  other 
regards  the  same. 


A  NEW  SYSTEM  OF  AGRICULTURE. 


43 


Waters  from  these  wells,  as  from  springs,  etc.,  are  never  of  the  ben- 
efit to  crops  and  soil  as  are  the  waters  of  rainfall,  having  been  in  their 
percolation  and  flow  through  the  minute  water  veins  of  earth,  deprived 
of  the  most  valuable  of  their  fertilizing  elements,  and  having  in  many 
instances  been  charged  with  mineral  and  chemical  substances,  the 
washings  of  which  are  injurious  to  plant  life.  When  artesian  well,  spring, 
or  even  river  waters  are  used,  it  will  be  found  necessary  to  use  greater 
amounts  of  manures  and  fertilizers  than  where  the  rain-waters  are  fully 
stored,  and  changes  in  the  nature  of  the  soil  will  never  be  as  great.  At 
some  points  artesian  wells  are  found  whose  waters  are  of  a  very  high  tem- 
perature, and  here  very  advantageous  use  can  be  made  of  them,  as  their 
waters  can  be  made  to  impart  early  warmth  to  soil  and  continue  it  until 
late  in  fall,  in  some  localities  the  year  through,  in  fact,  and  that  to  a  point 
where  plant  growth  may  be  made  every  month  in  the  year.  In  another 
chapter,  devoted  to  the  use  of  hot  water 'in  this  system,  will  be  more  fully 
explained  the  benefits  which  can  be  derived  from  the  use  of  these  warm 
waters  from  artesian  sources. 

Swamp  Lands. — These  lands,  in  nearly  every  instance,  are  so  located 
that  they  do,  and  have  for  generations,  received  the  waters  and  washings  of 
higher  lands.  To  the  fertility  thus  brought  to  them  has  been  added  from 
year  to  year  the  decay  of  the  rank  vegetable  growth  which  has  grown  upon 
them,  and  they  are  thus  made  the  most  valuable  of  lands  when  once 
reclaimed.  On  such  lands  as  these  can  this  system  be  established  in  one 
of  its  most  valuable  forms.  Lay  out  the  line  of  storage  trenches,  and  in 
mid-summer,  at  the  time  of  drouth  if  possible,  sink  them  four  feet  or 
more.  Fill  with  stone  to  within  two  feet  of  surface,  or  if  stone  are  not  to 
be  had,  lay  a  large  tile.  Connect  storage  trenches  by  the  overflow  drains 
two  feet  below  the  surface,  and  put  in  the  drain  which  is  to  lead  off  the 
surplus  at  the  same  depth,  tapping  the  trench  which  is  nearest  the  point 
where  the  surplus  water  is  to  be  led  off.  Replace  the  soil  over  all. 

When  the  rains  come,  or  the  waters  wash  down  upon  it,  they  immedi- 
ately sink  into  storage  until  all  trenches  contain  two  feet  of  water,  having 
risen  to  the  point  of  overflow.  Above  this  point  only  water  of  capillary 
attraction  can  flow,  and  the  two  feet  of  soil  above  is  in  the  best  possible 
producing  form. 

If  the  swamp  was  formed  by  springs  a  water  table  is  created  for  them, 
and  they  will  keep  the  water  supply  up  at  all  times. 


CHAPTER  V. 


Workings  of   the  System. 

In  the  considerations  of  the  workings  of  this  system  we  will  first 
take  up  that  of  irrigation. 

The  trenches  and  overflow  drains  having  been  completed  and  the  soil  re- 
placed over  them,  the  workings  of  the  system  begin  by  the  trenches  filling 
with  the  waters  cut  off  in  underground  flow,  or  by  the  leaching  down 
through  the  surface  soil  of  the  melting  snows  or  falling  rains.  Having 
once  filled  to  the  point  of  overflow,  all  surplus  water  is  carried  off.  As 
long  as  the  rainfall  is  ample,  or  the  soil  is  filled  with  water  the  trenches 
will  remain  full,  or  nearly  so.  When  the  rains  cease,  and  the  growing 
crops  and  evaporation  begin  abstracting  the  moisture  from  the  soil,  capil- 
pillary  attraction  and  the  surface  phenomena  of  evaporation  begin  the 
work  of  lifting  the  stored  waters  from  the  trenches,  or  the  saturated  sub- 
soils beneath  and  between  them. 

During  the  growing  season,  evaporation  is  in  excess  of  the  rainfall  with 
reference  to  bare  soil,  or  with  reference  to  transpiration  from  plant  growth. 
Consequently,  the  direction  of  movement  of  the  soil  water  in  this  cli- 
mate is  upward  rather  than  downward;  not  to  exceed  ten  per  cent,  of  the 
waters  entering  the  storage  trenches,  or  the  subsoil  beneath  or  between 
them,  will,  in  ordinary  soils  sink  to  a  point  where  the  powers  of  capillary 
attraction  and  evaporation  cannot  pump  them  back  to  the  growing  vege- 
tation. By  this  system  a  water  table  is  artificially  created  which  will  make 
farming  a  success,  by  giving  a  stored  water  supply  within  the  soil  from 
the  surplus  of  the  season  when  evaporation  is  somewhat  checked,  or 
from  the  waters  accumulated  from  surface  or  saturated  flow.  This  water 
table,  or  storage,  is  of  great  consequence  to  the  tiller  of  the  soil,  as  fur- 
nishing the  source  of  prevention  or  mitigation  of  drouths. 

This  water  table  must  be  uniform,  and  controlled  through  the  process 
of  draining,  or  we  would  have  conditions  unfavorable  to  the  working  of 
the  land  and  to  plant  growth,  for  vegetation  cannot  thrive  with  roots  in 
stagnant  water. 

The   series  of  overflow  and  outlet  drains   used  in  connection  with 


A  NEW  SYSTEM  OF  AGRICULTURE.  45 

these  storage  trenches  furnish  this  drainage,  and  establish  a  line  above 
which  water  of  upward  flow  cannot  pass,  and  below  which  sinking  waters 
musf  go.  We  hence  have  a  depth  of  soil  above  the  trench  and  drain 
level  which  is  freed  from  the  washings  of  the  waters  of  the  storage  waters,  and 
which  is  kept  from  the  stagnation  produced  by  the  action  of  water  in  excess; 
it  hence  retains  and  increases  its  power  of  capillary  action,  and  draws  regu- 
larly through  this  capillarity  from  the  stored  waters,  never  abstracting  in 
excess  of  the  plant  needs,  and  in  proper  soil  and  under  proper  conditions 
of  soil  treatment,  never  stinting  the  water  supply  to  the  plant.  This  ever 
upward  movement  of  water,  only  intermittingly  interrupted  through  percol- 
ating water  of  rainfalls,  conserves  soil  fertility  within  itself,  and  even  recov- 
ers soil  fertility  from  the  layers  of  soil  subjected  to  the  steepings  of  the 
reservoir  water. 

These  facts  suggest  a  direction  as  to  the  depth  at  which  drains 
should  be  placed.  A  drain  should  not  be  so  deeply  located  as  to  carry 
the  water  table  beyond  the  power  of  capillarity  to  freely  convey  to  the  sur- 
face the  stored  waters,  but  should  be  as  deeply  laid  as  consistent  with  this 
purpose  of  securing  water  movement  to  the  surface. 

The  capillary  flow  of  the  stored  waters  can  be  largely  regulated  by 
two  simple  methods.  Where  a  crop  is  put  upon  the  land  to  which  a  large 
supply  of  moisture  is  necessary,  compress  the  soil  closely  beneath  the 
seed  or  plants.  Compression  of  the  soil  re-establishes  capillary  connec- 
tions which  become  broken  through  the  process  of  plowing  and  fitting 
the  land,  and  hence  is  of  avail  toward  supplying  a  constant  access  of 
moisture  to  the  young  plant.  The  firmer  the  soil  is  made  the  more  rapid 
it  draws  the  waters.  Should  less  moisture  be  desired  than  the  soil  nat- 
urally draws,  straw  or  coarse  manure  may  be  worked  into  it  to  an  extent 
sufficient  to  check  the  capillary  flow  to  any  point  desired.  These  con- 
clusions can  be  readily  verified.  During  the  dry  season  of  July  let  coarse 
manure  be  spaded  into  the  soil  in  preparation  of  a  strawberry  bed,  and 
then  immediately  set  out  the  young  plants.  Unless  timely  rain  inter- 
venes, it  will  be  found  that  these  plants  will  perish  from  drouth,  as  the 
coarse  manure  has  broken  the  capillary  connections,  and  no  supply  of 
moisture  can  come  from  below. 

If  however,  this  land  be  thoroughly  rolled  with  a  heavy  roller,  by 
which  contacts  are  established  and  connection  with  the  lower  soil  fur- 
thered, capillary  attraction  will  furnish  a  supply  of  water  from  below,  and 
the  plants  will  receive  sufficient  nourishment  for  their  growth. 


CHAPTER  VI. 


Effects  of  the  System. 

On  Soil.  The  effects  upon  soils  of  this  system  are  most  marked, 
especially  so  upon  clay  soils,  soils  underlaid  by  hardpan  or  sandy  soil. 
Clay  soils  are  above  the  overflow,  and  drains  trenches  deprived  of  their 
naturally  sticky,  cold,  and  wet  condition  in  spring  and  fall,  are  early 
made  light,  dry,  warm,  and  friable,  and  put  in  the  best  possible  condition 
to  work. 

In  heat  of  summer  evaporation  from  below  keeps  the  soil  moist,  pre- 
vents baking  and  cracking,  and  the  ground  is  at  all  times  soft  and  easy  or 
tillage.  The  percolation  of  the  waters  from  level  to  level,  and  from 
trench  to  trench,  carrying  with  them  in  their  flow,  air,  light,  warmth,  and 
elements  of  fertilization  natural  to  the  waters,  or  taken  up  and  deposited 
by  them  in  their  passage,  so  change  the  soil  between  the  trenches  that  it 
gradually  becomes  as  the  surface  soil,  sweet,  warm,  light,  and  rich  in 
plant  food  down  to  a  point  as  deep  as  the  bottom  of  the  storage  trenches. 
This  condition  of  the  soil  allows  the  roots  of  growing  crops  to  more 
freely  penetrate  it.  There  they  ramify,  and  in  times  of  drouth  are  cool 
and  moist,  independent  of  the  scorching  sun  and  drying  air  above.  The 
foliage  remains  green  and  thrifty,  perfect  growth,  development  or  fruitage 
goes  on,  being  constantly  fed  by  the  life-giving  moisture. 

Again,  the  soil  being  thus  opened  the  aerial  gases,  especially  oxygen, 
enter  it,  and  decompose  the  organic  matters  so  that  they  can  be  taken  up 
by,  and  nourish,  the  plants.  By  opening  the  soil  we  admit  the  air. 

Air  is  as  vital  a  necessity  to  vegetation  as  water,  and  if  access  of  air 
is  denied  the  roots  of  the  plants  must  perish.  Where  water  goes  air  fol- 
lows, and  as  evaporation  takes  place  air  fills  the  space  previously  occu- 
pied by  the  water.  It  equalizes  the  temperature  and  prevents  sudden 
changes  of  heat  and  cold.  It  renders  the  soil  drier  and  warmer,  earlier 
in  spring  and  later  in  fall,  thus  greatly  prolonging  the  planting  and  grow- 
ing season.  In  dry  seasons  the  soil  is  moistened  by  condensation  of  the 
air  admitted  into  it  not  only  from  above  but  also  from  the  drains  and 


A  NEW  SYSTEM  OF  AGRICULTURE.  47 

trenches  beneath,  as  well  as  by  the  stored  waters.  The  soil  is  thus  made 
more  open  and  mellow,  roots  penetrate  farther  and  get  more  nutriment. 
The  open  dry  soil  absorbs  miasmatic  gases  which  enrich  the  soil  and  purify 
the  air,  thus  increasing  health  and  wealth. 

These  same  changes  and  effects  are  produced  on  hardpan  lands, 
and  firm  retentive  subsoil.  Sand  lands  are  made  moist  and  cool,  and 
given  the  power  to  nourish  and  feed  vegetation  through  the  medium  of  the 
waters. 

Perfect  vegetable  growth  on  sand  in  heat  of  summer  is  not  possible, 
as  the  temperature  of  the  sand  becomes  such  as  to  literally  burn  it  root 
and  branch.  Surface  irrigation  or  watering  affords  but  little  relief,  as 
scalding  then  but  takes  the  place  of  burning. 

Apply  the  waters  beneath  and  all  is  changed. 

They  are  beyond  the  direct  effects  of  the  sun  and  its  rays,  and  afford 
coolness  and  moisture  at  the  same  time.  Sandy  soils  warm  much  earlier 
in  spring,  hold  heat  later  in  the  fall,  and  where  they  can  be  kept  cool  and 
moist  in  midsummer  can  be  made  to  bear  continuous  crops  for  longer 
periods,  and  in  the  most  luxurious  growth  possible  to  vegetation. 

Poverty  of  the  soil  (a  condition,  indeed,  mainly  due  to  a  poverty  of 
the  water)  is  unknown,  and  impossible  under  the  system.  Any  element 
lacking  in  the  soil  to  the  growth  of  a  crop  can  at  once  be  carried  into, 
and  through  it  by  the  medium  of  the  stored  and  circulating  waters. 

Lands  now  said  to  be  worn  out,  and  which,  through  their  firm  and 
compact  condition  are  not  capable  of  absorbing  air,  light,  or  water  in 
quantities  sufficient  to  support  vegetable  life,  can,  by  this  system  be  made 
to  produce  crops  in  as  great  abundance  as  at  any  time  in  the  past,  and 
this  in  many  instances,  without  the  addition  of  manures  or  fertilizers  to 
them.  Open  them  up  by  it ;  allow  them  to  drink  in  fully  the  season's 
rains,  absorb  the  heat,  take  in  the  light,  and  beathe  in  the  air,  that  all 
may  reach  the  roots  of  the  crops  to  be  put  upon  it,  and  it  will  in  most 
instances  be  found  these  elements  were  alone  lacking. 

Washing  of  the  soil  by  heavy  rainfalls  with  their  loss  and  damage  to 
lands  and  crops,  is  absolutely  prevented. 

The  moist,  open,  and  light  soil  above  drain  and  storage  trench  at 
once  taking  up  the  rainfall  without  regard  to  its  extent,  and  pass  it 
down  to  the  reservoirs.  The  surplus  if  any  will  be  passed  off  through 
the  overflow  trenches  without  in  the  least  disturbing  the  surface  or  the 
crops  grown  thereon. 


48  DRAINAGE  AND  IRRIGATION. 

Soils  under  this  system  are  also  made  untenantable  for  destructive 
insects  and  other  pests  which  infest  or  hibernate  in  them,  and  which  every 
year  in  one  portion  or  another  of  the  country,  reduce  farmers'  profits  or 
cause  them  to  disappear.  Moisture  is  destructive  of  the  pest  and  its  spawn, 
but  when  this  system  is  in  use  this  condition  need  not  be  depended  upon 
alone  to  rid  the  soil  of  vermin.  The  tiller  has  it  in  his  power  to  change 
the  circulating  waters  of  the  system  with  elements  and  remedies  which  will 
at  once  destroy  or  drive  out  every  pest  it  may  contain.  To  illustrate  :  If 
a  plot  of  ground  becomes  infested  by  wire,  cut  worms,  or  other  white 
grub,  they  can  at  once  be  destroyed  by  letting  into  the  storage  trenches  a 
solution  of  copperas  water.  This  is  taken  up  by  the  stored  waters  and 
carried  by  percolation  and  capillary  attraction  all  through  the  soil,  the 
pest  destroyed,  and  the  crop  benefited,  as  copperas  is  a  powerful  stimu- 
lant and  fertilizer.  Kanite,  saltpeter,  muriate  of  potash,  wood  ashes,  and 
many  other  substances  destructive  to  vermin  but  highly  beneficial  to  vege- 
tation can  be  used  in  the  same  way. 

Hibernating  insects  will  not  enter  or  remain  in  soils  charged  with 
some  of  these  salts,  as  they  do  in  soils  which  are  not.  Where  the  land 
has  been  charged,  potato  bugs,  circulio,  and  insects  of  their  kind,  have 
largely  disappeared. 

As  these  things  are  used  to  destroy  vermin,  so  may  others  be  used 
to  cure  or  prevent  blights  and  other  diseases  which  attack  plant,  crop, 
shrub,  or  tree. 

By  the  aid  of  the  stored  waters  can  the  necessary  food  or  remedy  be 
carried  directly  into  the  circulation  of  the  object  to  be  treated.  Many  of 
the  blights  and  diseases  to  which  fruit  trees  and  shrubs  are  subject,  and 
which  no  outward  application  reaches,  can  be  at  once  checked  or  cured 
if  the  remedy  is  carried  directly  into  their  bodies,  limbs,  and  foliage,  by 
medium  of  root  and  sap.  As  internal  remedies  are  necessary  to  the  sys- 
tem of  man  or  beast  in  case  of  disease,  so  are  they  necessary  to  plant 
life,  and  having  the  power  to  administer,  you  have  the  power  to  cure  or 
prevent. 

When  special  applications  are  to  be  made  for  a  special  purpose,  dis- 
solve the  ingredients  in  water,  and  lead  it  into  the  storage  trench, 
directly  above  the  soil,  crop,  shrubs,  or  trees  to  be  treated. 

Effects  on  Crops.  The  effects  of  the  system  on  crops  are  as  marked 
and  wonderful  as  they  are  certain.  As  it  warms  and  dries  the  lands  some 
weeks  earlier  in  spring  it  permits  of  much  earlier  seeding  or  setting, 


A  NEW  SYSTEM  OF  AGRICULTURE.  49 

and  gives  the  crop  a  good  early  start,  which  every  cultivator  of  the  soil 
knows  is  the  making  of  it.  So  soon  as  the  seed  sprouts,  or  the  set  plant 
puts  out  its  first  roots,  the  crop  begins  to  receive  and  take  up  all  the 
water  necessary  to  its  perfect  growth,  development  or  fruitage.  As  long 
as  the  spring  rains  are  abundant  for  the  demands  of  the  crop,  the  stored 
waters  are  not  drawn  upon ;  but  let  them  fail,  and  the  demands  of  the 
vegetation  exceed  the  supply  furnished  by  the  rains  or  contained  in  the 
upper  soil,  and  capillary  attraction  sets  her  countless  pumps  at  work, 
drawing  to  the  roots  of  the  crop  from  the  stored  waters  beneath  all  the 
nutriment  necessary  to  its  continuous  growth  and  perfect  development, 
but  never  in  excess  of  the  demand. 

As  these  stored  waters  rise  in  capillary  flow  they  bring  with  them  in 
solution  all  the  fertilizing  elements  natural  to  the  rain  and  snow  waters, 
also  that  which  they  have  gathered  from  the  soil  in  their  percolation 
down  to  storage.  Plants  and  crops  thus  watered  and  fed  become  more 
perfect  than  is  possible  under  other  conditions,  grow  to  a  much  greater 
size,  and  when  of  the  flowering  and  fruiting  varieties,  have  the  strength 
and  power  to  put  out  a  greater  number  and  stronger  fruit-stems  and 
blossoms,  and  of  carrying  them  to  perfect  growth.  Plants,  shrubs,  vines, 
bushes,  grass,  or  any  crop  which  stands  upon  the  ground  through  the 
winter,  receive  constant  and  never-ceasing  benefit. 

As  evaporation  from  the  stored  waters  prevents  to  a  large  degree 
freezing  of  the  ground,  and  keeps  the  soil  some  degrees  warmer  a  few 
inches  beneath  the  surface,  than  is  the  air  above,  the  crop,  plant  or 
shrub,  put  out  and  build  up  a  mass  of  white  root  which  will  begin  to  feed 
and  water  them  as  soon  as  warm  weather  starts  the  sap.  This  growth  of 
white  roots,  in  their  formation,  exert  the  power  of  capillary  attraction  to  a 
greater  or  less  degree,  and  draw  to  them  the  waters  in  downward  or  up- 
ward flow.  These  waters  bring  and  deposit  food  and  fertility,  which 
the  plant  will  at  once  take  up  and  assimilate,  as  soon  as  growth  above 
ground  begins.  In  this  feeding  upon  substances  brought  to  them,  they 
make  their  own  selections,  choosing  that  which  is  necessary  or  best  suit- 
ed to  their  growth  and  development,  and  rejecting  everything  offensive  or 
unsuited  to  their  natures. 

On  the  plot  of  ground  put  under  the  system  by  Mr.  Cole,  this  winter 
growth  of  root  has  taken  place  every  year,  and  the  rapid,  strong  growth  shown 
by  the  vegetation  occupying  the  ground  in  early  spring  is  proof  that  great 
strength  is  accumulated  by  and  for  the  plant  during  non-producing  months. 


CHAPTER  VII. 


Builds    Up    Soils,   Saves  Manures. 

Artificial  watering  by  any  method  never  gives  as  satisfactory  results,, 
even  when  ample,  as  will  one  good  shower  of  rain.  This  is  because  the 
waters  of  spring,  well,  or  stream,  have  been  strained  and  deprived  in  their 
flow  through  soil  or  along  water  course  of  the  elements  which  they,  as 
rain  water,  oiiginally  contained,  elements  which  renew  and  build  up  soils 
worn  or  wearing  by  constant  cropping.  Rain  water  becomes  so  chemi- 
cally changed  and  charged  by  the  process  of  evaporation,  condensation, 
and  fall,  that  when  it  comes  in  abundance  crops  grow,  thrive,  and  develop 
to  a  state  of  perfection  not  possible  even  with  any  other  equally  abundant 
water  supply,  and  the  soil  shows  evidence  of  having  been  enriched. 

To  the  chemical  changes  which  take  place  in  the  rain  waters  in  their 
rise  by  evaporation  and  fall  as  rain  are  the  additions  of  solids  which  they 
gather  and  deposit  when  confined. 

These  solids  are  concentrated  fertilizers,  far  superior  for  plant  growth 
to  anything  man  has  ever  been  able  to  compound.  They  are  also  much 
more  abundant  than  is  generally  known  or  supposed,  a  year's  rainfall 
making  a  deposit  of  no  mean  amount  over  a  surface  where  caught  and 
held. 

As  it  is  with  the  rain  waters,  so  is  it  with  the  snows  in  their  effects,, 
elements  and  deposits. 

While  all  snows  contain  these  ingredients,  and  are  of  value,  the  snows 
of  March  are  particularly  rich  in  them,  and  are  of  sanitary  and  medical 
value  to  man,  as  well  as  soil  and  crop.  While  discussing  with  Dr.  Trios. 
Herron,  a  well-known  physician  and  specialist,  of  Cincinnati,  Ohio,  this 
question  of  storing  the  waters  of  rain  and  snow,  he  remarked :  "  Yes,  in 
thus  saving  for  your  crops  these  waters,  you  gain  an  advantage  which  no 
other  method  can  give  you. 

Not  alone  for  soil  and  crop  have  these  waters  wonderful  chemical  prop- 
erties, but  for  the  use  of  mankind  as  well.  The  snows  of  the  month  of 
March  contain  elements,  electric,  magnetic  or  chemical,  we  know  not 


A  NEW  SYSTEM  OF  AGRICULTURE.  51 

which,  which  are  of  particular  value.  One  of  the  most  popular  and  suc- 
cessful eye  waters  on  the  market  is  nothing  more  or  less  than  water  of 
March  snows  carefully  gathered  (so  as  to  save  filtering),  melted  and 
bottled. 

Again,  if  the  ladies  would  so  gather  and  bottle  this  snow  water,  using 
it  for  the  purpose  of  sponging  the  face,  they  would  find  it,  as  a  pre- 
server of  complexion  and  skin,  much  superior  to  the  best  known  cosmetic 
in  use.  That  it  has  equally  as  many  and  valuable  properties  for  crop  use 
I  cannot  doubt." 

Where  the  country  is  covered  with  forest,  and  the  soil  is  made  a 
perfect  sponge  by  the  roots,  decaying  woods,  leaves,  and  mosses,  the 
snow  and  rain  waters  are  absorbed,  and  their  deposits  held  in  the  ground. 
These  and  the  small  amount  of  vegetable  decay  annually  taking  place  on 
them,  are  all  the  fertilizers  the  soil  ever  receives,  and  yet  the  yearly  growth 
of  wood,  foliage,  wild  plants,  vines  and  grasses  exceed  in  weight  and 
bulk  any  crop  which  could  be  grown  on  the  same  soil  when  under  tillage. 
This  primeval  growth  takes  place  year  after  year,  and  increases  rather 
than  decreases. 

Clear  off  the  forest  and  crop  the  ground  a  few  years  and  all  is 
changed.  Tillage  breaks  up  the  little  water  cells  of  the  loose  soil,  packs 
it,  forms  by  compact  root  of  crop,  sun-baked  surface  in  summer,  or  fro- 
zen one  in  winter,  a  roof,  so  to  speak,  which  turns  off  in  large  part  these 
waters,  leading  them  with  their  valuable  contents  to  ditch,  drain,  or 
stream,  where  they  are  lost  to  soil  and  crop.  This  loss  is  not,  nor  can  be 
ever  made  up,  by  the  application  of  barnyard  manures  or  commercial 
fertilizers.  This  is  also  not  the  only  loss  occurring  under  these  condi- 
tions. The  flow  of  water  carries  in  its  course  fine  particles  of  soil,  or 
manures  in  bulk  or  solution. 

As  fertilizing  applications  are  generally  made  in  fall,  winter,  or  early 
spring,  when  the  rains  are  copious,  they,  or  the  melting  snows,  carry 
into  the  streams  a  very  large  percentage  of  the  most  valuable  parts  of 
the  applications  made.  What  farmer  has  not  seen  these  dark-dyed  waters 
rushing  off  over  the  surface  of  his  land,  carrying  away  the  best  of  the 
soil,  and  his  fertilizers  also.  So  great  is  this  loss  on  the  average,  the 
checking  of  it  would  save  enough  in  manures  and  increase  of  crop  to 
pay  the  expense  of  doing  all  work  required  by  the  new  system.  Tile 
drainage,  which  has  in  the  past  few  years  become  popular,  and  is  being 
rapidly  extended,  has  in  some  degree  changed  these  conditions  and 


52  DRAINAGE  AND  IRRIGATION. 

checked  this  loss  by  making  the  soil  light  and  porous,  enabling  it  to  take 
up  the  rainfall.  Where  this  is  light,  and  the  amount  not  sufficient  to 
sink  down  to  the  tile,  all  is  saved ;  but  where  it  is  in  excess  of  what  the 
soil  can  absorb  and  hold,  the  tile  at  once  leads  the  surplus  away,  and  this 
too  is  lost,  with  what  it  still  holds  of  plant  food. 

Here  once  more  are  the  rains  of  fall,  winter,  and  spring  largely  lost, 
as  they  afford  a  much  larger  amount  of  water  than  the  soil  can  of  itself 
retain,  and  the  surplus  escapes. 

Rainfalls  on  tile-drained  lands,  which  are  of  sufficient  volume  to  sink 
down  to  the  drains,  deposit  in  percolation  all,  or  nearly  all,  their  solids  ; 
but  during  this  downward  course  they  dissolve  and  carry  with  them  near- 
ly the  whole  of  every  fertilizer  or  manure  contained  in  the  soil  which 
can  be  rendered  solvent,  and  would  carry  off  all,  should  they  be  contin- 
ued for  any  great  length  of  time.  Go  to  the  outlet  of  the  tile  drain  beneath 
a  highly  fertilized  plot  of  ground,  and  catch  some  of  the  escaping  waters 
in  fall  or  spring,  or  during  a  heavy  rainfall  in  summer,  and  you  will 
find  they  are  rich  in  elements  of  fertilization.  In  other  words,  you  will 
find  it  is  a  liquid  manure,  so  rich  in  plant-food  one  would  gladly  pay  its 
full  value  in  hard  cash  to  have  it  returned  to  soil  and  crop.  Mr.  Cole, 
by  his  system,  prevents  and  saves  this  loss. 

His  lands  are  made  light,  open,  and  sponge-like,  and  have  the  power 
to  absorb  the  rainfall  in  its  entirety,  summer,  fall,  winter,  and  spring  alike, 
and  having  taken  it  all  up,  they  pass  it  down  to  drain  tile,  and  from  tile  to 
storage. 

The  importance  of  passing  the  rainfall  down  through  the  soil,  rather 
than  over  the  surface,  is  seldom  thought  of  or  in  anywise  appreciated. 
Stick  a  pin  right  here — when  we  say  the  water  of  rainfall  that  falls  on  the  sur- 
face of  agricultural  lands  ought  to  pass  through  the  soil  and  subsoil  for 
the  better  fertility  and  better  mechanical  condition  of  soil  and  subsoil. 

Think  of  the  fertility  wasted  annually  by  the  surface  washing  of  the 
land,  the  soil  loaded  with  richness,  and  the  finer  particles  carried  away 
in  the  muddy  water  never  to  return  in  any  form. 

In  percolation  down  to  storage  the  water  does  not  deposit  all  of  its 
mineral  and  gaseous  elements,  which  possess  fertilizing  qualities,  but 
gathers  to  it  additional  richness,  which  it  carries  into  storage,  there 
to  hold  and  steep  in  preparation  for  return  to  crop  as  liquid  manure, 
a  form  in  which  it  has  the  quickest,  most  powerful,  and  complete  effect 
possible  on  vegetation. 


A  NEW  SYSTEM  OF  AGRICULTURE.  53 

The  use  of  liquid  manure  is  an  economy,  and  results  in  a  saving  of 
time  and  labor,  and  increases  the  effectiveness  of  the  solid  manure.  Being 
applied  in  the  condition  in  which  it  will  enter  at  once  into  the  circulation 
of  the  plant,  there  is  no  loss  of  fertilizing  matter.  The  crop,  fed  in  its 
early  stages  of  growth,  receives  its  nutriment  in  such  quantities  and  at 
such  periods  as  will  exactly  meet  its  needs  and  force  it  into  most  luxuri- 
ant growth. 

As  these  teachings  of  the  soil  and  manures  reach  the  storage  trenches 
they  commingle  with  the  other  waters  contained  therein  and  become  dilu- 
ted, and  according  to  Mr.  Stewart  in  his  "Irrigation  for  Farm,  Gaiden, 
and  Orchard,"  should  they  become  so  much  diluted  as  to  run  off  perfectly 
clear,  might  be  of  sufficient  strength  for  all  purposes." 

Discoursing  on  this  subject  of  liquid  manuring,  Mr.  Stewart  proceeds 
further  to  say:  "The  danger  lies  in  using  liquid  manure  of  too  great 
a  strength,  rather  than  in  diluting  it  too  copiously.  It  is  this  fact  which 
makes  the  New  Agriculture  the  way,  and  the  only  way,  to  perfection  in 
culture." 

It  has  been  found  in  practice  when  a  heavy  rain  has  filled  the  storage 
trenches  in  places  where  there  was  but  a  very  small  supply  of  manure,  and 
the  waters  were  not  less  than  a  hundred  times  weaker  than  ordinary  liquid 
manure,  they  still  give  wonderful  strength  and  color  to  the  crops.  A 
plant  may  starve  on  the  most  abundantly  manured  or  fertilized  soil  when 
it  is  dry.  In  fact,  fresh  manures  and  all  commercial  fertilizers  applied 
to  crop  or  soil  during,  or  just  previous  to  a  drowth,  are  injurious  to  the 
crop,  as  they  of  themselves  furnish  elements  which  bum  out  and  destroy 
the  vegetation.  They  may  be  applied  at  a  time  when  all  conditions  are 
in  their  favor,  and  work  benefit  in  the  start,  but  dry  out  the  surface  soil 
and  they  change  as  to  fire  and  destroy.  Commercial  fertilizers,  when 
honestly  made,  are  of  great  value  to  the  cultivator  of  the  soil,  offering,  as 
they  do,  in  concentrated  form  and  easy  of  application,  some  of  the  most 
powerful  elements  of  fertilization  known  or  possible. 

That  many  who  have  used  them  have  met  with  failure  in  realizing 
expected  benefits  is  well  known.  This  failure  is  owing  not  to  lack  of 
merit,  or  the  necessary  elements  in  the  fertilizer  used,  but  to  method  and 
conditions  of  application. 

As  an  illustration  :  A  man  who  is  cultivating  the  soil  under  old  meth- 
ods and  tile  drainage,  purchases  a  quantity  of  some  standard  brand  of 
commercial  fertilizer  for  use  on  soil  and  crop.  He  is  given  rules  of  appli- 


54  DRAINAGE  AND  IRRIGATION. 

cation,  among  which  is  one  made  prominent  and  impressive.  "  In  apply- 
ing this  fertilizer,  do  not  let  it  come  in  contact  with  seed  or  root  of  plant, 
as  it  is  so  powerful  in  some  of  its  elements  it  may  cause  injury  to  young 
and  tender  roots  and  plants."  Such  being  the  case,  he  must  either  apply 
before  the  seed  or  crop  is  put  upon  the  ground,  or  between  rows  so  far 
away  that  the  direct  teachings  from  it  will  not  reach  the  root.  Having  so 
applied,  if  there  were  to  occur  just  enough  rainfall  to  slowly  and  continu- 
ously act  upon  it  until  all  is  dissolved  and  diffused  through  the  soil,  the 
effect  would  be  all  claimed  or  expected,  but  this  never  happens.  If 
applied  as  above  mentioned,  before  the  crop,  heavy  rains  wash 
the  soluble  parts  in  large  percentage  away  either  in  surface  wash, 
or  by  escape  through  the  tile  (where  used)  ere  the  crop  can  begin  to 
receive  benefits  from  it.  If  later  in  the  season  it  is  put  between  rows  of 
crops,  it  is  more  than  liable  to  lack  the  necessary  rainfall  to  dissolve  it  in 
time  to  feed  the  crop  and  materially  assist  growth  ;  it  is  also  liable  to  those 
sudden  and  very  heavy  summer  rains  which  cause  great  damage  and  loss 
as  do  the  more  protracted  ones  of  other  seasons.  To  say  that  50  per 
•cent,  of  fertilizers  and  manures  put  upon  the  ground  in  ordinary  condi- 
tions is  lost  is  a  very  conservative  estimate,  and  this  loss  is  a  very  serious 
and  expensive  one. 

Apply  the  same  brand  of  fertilizers  on  a  plot  of  ground  under  Mr. 
Cole's  system  and  see  results.  If  applied  early  in  the  season,  the  rains 
wash  it  down  into  the  soil,  and  what  the  soil  does  not  hold  either  in  liquid 
or  solid  form,  the  storage  trenches  receive,  dissolved  and  diffused  to  return 
to  plant  and  soil  by  capillary  flow  when  taking  place. 

If  applied  after  the  crop  is  on  the  ground,  and  at  any  time  during 
the  season,  it  has  a  soil  made  sufficiently  moist  by  the  stored  waters  (if 
not  by  rainfall)  to  surely  and  slowly  dissolve  it.  If  before  this  is  fully 
done,  a  heavy  rain  comes,  down  into  the  storage  trenches  all  goes,  only  to 
be  returned  in  good  time  thoroughly  dissolved.  In  this  form  its  effect 
on  crops  is  immediate  and  complete.  As  it  is  with  commercial  fertiliz- 
ers, so  it  is  with  every  manure  used. 

Mr.  Cole  found,  after  having  had  his  system  in  use  for  two  or  three 
years,  that  the  fertilization  contained  in  the  rain  waters,  and  that,  which 
they  gathered  and  saved  from  the  soil,  was,  with  very  small  additions 
made  in  the  spring,  ample  to  carry  his  crops  through  the  year,  and  devel- 
op them  to  perfection.  When  he  first  made  known  this  fact,  it  was  said  by 
many  persons,  and  one  or  two  agricultural  publications,  that  his  statement 


A  NEW  SYSTEM  OF  AGRICULTURE.  55 

was  not  true,  and  that  no  method  could  be  found  which  would  lessen  and 
save  this  expense  of  fertilizing.  Since  then  an  experiment  has  been  made  at 
the  State  Agricultural  Experimental  Station,  which  proves  his  statement 
true,  that  the  benefits  of  the  water,  and  the  saving  of  manures  will,  in  a 
very  short  time,  pay  all  the  expense  of  applying  the  system,  even  in  its 
most  perfect  and  ample  form.  We  give  an  extract  from  the  report  of  the 
experiment  as  made  from  the  station. 

"  EFFECT  OF  COMMERCIAL  FERTILIZERS. 

Upon  the  dryest  and  most  gravelly  portion  of  the  field  which  the 
fodder  corn  was  grown,  several  one-tenth  acre  plots  were  measured  off 
and  treated  with  several  forms  of  concentrated  fertilizers.  The  corn, 
Sibley's  Pride  of  the  North,  was  planted  on  May  yth,  the  fertilizers  were 
applied  broadcast  on  June  4th,  400  pounds  per  acre  being  applied  in  every 
instance.  Below  are  the  given  results. 

Plot.  Kind  of  Fertilizer.  Af"  Per  Yield; 

Acre.  Lbs.  per  Acre. 

1.  Ground  Bone 400  17,100 

2.  Cotton  Seed  Meal 400  15*450 

3.  Cotton  Seed  Ashes 400  13*900 

4.  Equal  parts  of  Cotton  Seed  Ashes 

and  Cotton  Seed  Meal 400  13,600 

5.  Equal  parts  Ground  Bone  and  Cot- 

ton Seed  Meal 400  13,200 

6.  Equal  parts  Ground  Bone  and  Cot- 

ton Seed  Ashes 400  *4?73o 

Unfertilized   plot  on  similar  soil, 

but  in  a  moister  situation 20,610 

The  corn  was  cut  September  1 2th  and  was  well  matured. 
As  will  be  seen  by  the  table,  no  results  in  the  crop  can  be  traced  to 
the  use  of  the  fertilizer.  This  is  undoubtedly  due  to  the  fact  that  there 
was  not  enough  water  at  hand  to  enable  the  plant  to  use  the  fertility  that 
was  in  the  soil  before  the  fertilizers  were  added.  There  are  many  things 
that  go  to  show  that  lack  of  success  with  concentrated  fertilizers  may  be 
.entirely  due  to  the  peculiarity  of  the  climate  of  the  particular  season  in 
which  the  fertilizers  are  used." 


CHAPTER  VIII. 


Use  of  Hot  Water. 

We  will  now  treat  of  that  feature  of  Mr.  Cole's  system  when  a  steady 
stream  of  cold  water,  drawn  from  any  source,  is  passed  through  a  coiled 
pipe  or  boiler,  and  then  emerging,  is  dropped  into  the  trench,  the  stones 
or  tiling  heated,  and  when  by  surface  protection  the  winter  months  are, 
to  a  great  extent,  made  those  of  production.  Let  the  following  serve  as 
an  illustration : 

"  A  curious  experiment  has  lately  been  made  at  Acqui,  Italy,  by  the 
proprietor  of  baths.  The  gentleman  has  at  his  disposal  an  inexhaustible 
supply  of  hot  water  from  a  natural  spring,  the  temperature  being  167  de- 
grees Fahrenheit.  The  surplus  not  required  for  the  baths  has  been 
diverted  so  as  to  flow  through  pipes  to  a  garden  on  the  outskirts  of  the 
town.  Here  the  heated  water  flows  beneath  a  number  of  forcing  frames 
containing  melons,  tomatoes,  asparagus,  and  other  garden  produce.  The 
result  is  that  a  supply  of  these  delicacies  is  ready  for  market  at  a  very 
early  period  of  the  year,  when,  therefore,  they  fetch  high  prices." 

Locate  your  coil  or  boiler  at  a  point  most  convenient  to  your  water 
supply,  whether  it  be  obtained  from  hydrant,  steam  pump,  or  from  the 
lower  trench  of  Mr.  Cole's  system  established  on  a  hillside.  When  the 
more  tender  and  delicate  class  of  vegetables  are  to  be  grown  in  the  winter 
months,  make  the  storage  trenches  from  four  to  eight  feet  wide,  and  any 
length  desired,  and  not  more  than  four  feet  apart.  Use  stone  where  avail- 
able for  their  construction,  and  connect  by  the  overflows  :  cover  with 
soil,  which  should  here  be  from  two  to  three  feet  deep,  in  order  that  there 
may  be  room  for  root  growth  above  a  point  when  the  hot  waters  or  steam 
will  scald.  Directly  over  the  trenches  build  cold  frames  just  as  ordinarily 
constructed.  Turn  on  your  water,  start  your  fire,  and  you  will  find  growth 
can  be  made  over  them  all  through  the  year. 

immediately  below  your  cold  frames  extend  the  system  as  for  garden 
use,  and  let  the  hot  waters  flow  through  it. 

On  this  ground  very  early  growth  of  vegetables  can  be  made,  and  a 


A  NEW  SYSTEM  OF  AGRICULTURE.  57 

late  growth  continued  in  the  fall.  Here  frosts  are  not  possible,  and  only 
very  hard  freezing  can  do  damage.  The  soil  obtains  heat  as  well  as  mois- 
ture from  the  steam  and  heated  stone.  We  have  said  water  could  be  taken 
from  the  lower  trench  of  a  hillside  system. 

The  flow  from  such  a  trench  will  be  found  to  be  ample  all  through  the 
months  of  autumn,  winter,  and  spring,  when  the  rains  and  snows  afford 
steady  supply.  Mr.  A.  I.  Root,  of  Medina,  Ohio,  publisher  of  the  monthly 
journal,  Gleanings  in  Bee  Culture,  has  adopted  and  made  use  of  the  sys- 
tem, making  a  specialty  of  the  hot-water  feature.  On  the  plot  where  he 
uses  the  hot  water,  it  is  supplied  with  the  escape  steam  from  a  manufac- 
turing establishment,  and  the  crops  are  grown  in  the  open  air.  In  his  jour- 
nal, under  date  Dec.  i8th,  1886,  he  published  the  following  article  under 
head  of 

"  Five    Crops  a    Year." 

"  We  commenced  planting  seeds  and  putting  out  plants,  as  you  may 
remember,  some  time  in  February.  Peas  were  planted  in  the  open  ground 
over  these  reservoirs  February  i,  and  they  yielded  a  crop  of  nice  pods  the 
fore  part  of  April.  Cabbage  plants  taken  from  the  greenhouse  and  put 
beside  the  peas  at  the  same  date  were,  for  a  time,  protected  by  a  sash 
to  harden  them  off,  but  after  two  or  three  weeks  they  too  were  allowed  to 
stand  without  protection.  They  were  repeatedly  buried  up  in  the  snow, 
but  the  ground  did  not  freeze,  owing  to  the  heat  underneath.  The  plants 
made  a  vigorous  growth,  and  were  just  as  good  as  cold-frame  plants,  so  far 
as  I  could  discover.  A  few  were  left  on  this  ground,  producing  heads  of 
ca,bbage  in  April  that  weighed,  some  of  them,  ten  pounds,  and,  as  we  re- 
ceived for  them  three  cents  per  pound,  we  got  thirty  cents  for  a  few  sin- 
gle heads  of  cabbage. 

After  the  cabbage  we  put  on  beets  and  lettuce,  of  which  I  have 
written  you.  The  lettuce  sold  readily  in  May  at  five  cents  per  head  each. 
You  will  remember  we  started  another  crop  between  the  rows  when  we 
were  maketing  one  crop.  After  the  lettuce  we  put  out  cucumbers  which 
were  started  in  the  greenhouse.  It  took  some  little  time  for  the  roots  to 
get  down  into  the  reservoirs  beneath ;  but  when  they  did  they  gave  an 
enormous  crop  of  cucumbers,  which  grew  so  rapidly  sometimes  that  we 
picked  them  every  day.  These  cucumbers,  coming  much  in  advance  of 
any  raised  in  the  open  air,  sold  readily  at  a  good  price. 

After  the  cucumbers,  we  raised  a  fine  lot  of  turnip-plants ;  and  when 
these  were  put  out  in  the  open  field  the  bed  was  cropped  with  lettuce, 


58  DRAINAGE  AND  IRRIGATION. 

which  now  covers  the  ground,  and  the  plants  are  so  large  and  thrifty  that 
they  are  an  astonishment  to  every  passer  by.  The  year  is  not  up  yet,  and 
will  not  be  until  next  February  ;  yet  this  ground  has  given  us  five  paying 
crops,  and  many  of  the  crops  not  only  paid,  but  paid  handsomely.  Of 
course  the  ground  was  heavily  manured.  The  two  feet  of  soil  that  covered 
the  stone  reservoirs  contained,  perhaps,  six  inches  of  manure ;  but,  my 
friends,  will  it  not  pay,  and  especially  will  it  not  pay  for  those  who  have 
time  on  their  hands,  with  nothing  to  do?  And  this  book,  as  you  may  re- 
member, is  written  mainly  for  this  class. 

A  squash  vine,  started  in  the  greenhouse,  and  put  out  in  June,  made 
very  slow  growth  for  a  time,  but  it  finally  started  an  immense  squash 
which  in  time  got  so  heavy  that  it  broke  the  vine  that  bore  it — said  vine 
being  run  over  a  trellis.  I  told  Father  Cole  about  it,  and  he  said  I  should 
have  made  a  platform  or  shelf  under  the  squash.  Another  one  grew  to 
an  enormous  size,  and  we  finally  sold  about  half  a  dozen  in  all  from  one 
vine.  The  quality  was  excellent. 

Some  time  in  the  latter  part  of  July  or  fore  part  of  August,  a  pump- 
kin vine  came  up  of  itself.  Nobody  thought  it  could  possibly  ripen  any 
pumpkins ;  but  the  single  vine  produced  six,  and  ripened  them  all.  The 
growth  was  astonishing.  I  presume  vines  of  all  kinds  send  their  roots 
down  at  once  into  the  reservoirs,  and  when  they  get  there  they  make  a 
growth  that  is  really  surprising.  Some  strawberry  plants  were  started  in 
March,  and  they  bore  a  crop  of  fine,  large  berries,  but  we  expect  greater 
results  from  these  next  season.  Pie-plant  promises  wonderfully.  We  have 
not  tested  the  matter  on  asparagus,  but  propose  to  another  season. 

Such  a  plot  of  ground  may  be  worked  on  not  only  evenings,  but  on 
rainy  days.  If  it  rains  hard,  fix  a  temporary  covering  of  the  shutters  or 
sash,  used  in  the  winter  time.  Of  course,  the  aid  of  exhaust  steam,  such 
as  we  use,  will  not  very  likely  be  at  the  command  of  many  of  our  readers ; 
but  this  exhaust  steam  is  of  no  particular  use  from  the  first  of  April  until 
the  first  of  October ;  and  by  the  aid  of  sash  we  can  make  plants  grow 
nicely  through  March  and  October — yes,  and  through  a  great  part  of  No- 
vember, without  bottom  heat,  especially  where  we  have  ground  that  is  en- 
riched to  two  feet  in  depth. 

Perhaps  the  greatest  satisfaction  I  have  received  in  the  use  of  the 
New  Agriculture  has  been  in  making  the  swamp-holes  and  waste  places 
on  our  eighteen  acres  the  most  productive  spots  we  have.  When  I  bought 
the  place,  a  small  stream,  which  we  call  Champion  Brook,  meandered 


A  NEW  SYSTEM  OF  AGRICULTURE. 


59 


across  our  low  ground,  traveling  over  more  than  twice  the  distance  it 
would  make  in  going  straight  across,  as  such  brooks  usually  do.  In  fact,  our 
whole  creek  bottom  has  been  at  different  times  washed  over  and  cut  up 
by  this  Champion  Brook.  Well,  my  first  work,  six  or  seven  years  ago, 
was  to  make  Champion  Brook  go  straight  from  where  it  came  on  to  my 
land  to  the  point  where  it  passed  off.  This  left  the  old  creek  bed,  and  in 
many  places  it  had  washed  great  holes  down  to  the  bed  rock.  These 
holes  have  been  a  bother  and  a  nuisance  until  the  present  season.  Dur- 
ing the  past  summer,  as  I  have  told  you,  we  have  scooped  out  the  con- 
tents, clear  down  to  the  rock  in  many  places,  and  I  tell  you  it  was  fun  to  do 
it — especially  as  the  dry  season  greatly  favored  the  work.  These  ho'es 
were  then  the  receptacles  for  all  the  stone,  tinware,  boots  and  shoes,  and 
everything  that  could  be  collected  on  the  place,  and  during  the  past  sea- 
son we  have  been  grubbing  out  the  stumps,  and  using  them  to  fill  these 
gullies  and  holes.  We  make  the  surface  level,  then  cover  it  with  tinware, 
or  something  that  will  not  decay,  then  down  come  the  banks  to  the  sides, 
until  we  can  run  both  plow  and  cultivator  right  over  them  without  any 
danger  of  striking  or  tearing  up  the  stumps  or  tinware.  Of  course  these 
holes  are  full  of  water,  or,  at  least,  as  full  as  the  outlets  described  in 
Chapter  V.  allow  them  to  get.  We  want  the  water  to  come  within  a  foot 
or  eighteen  inches  of  the  surface  of  the  soil,  but  no  higher.  Our  crops 
over  these  places  have  been  wonderful.  I  was  pleased  to  see  even  friend 
Terry  express  his  admiration  and  satisfaction  at  the  looks  of  my  potatoes, 
celery,  and  other  crops.  Celery  seems  to  revel  in  such  a  situation.  Our 
plants  on  the  creek  bottom  are  to-day  looking  as  bright  and  green  as  they 
have  been  during  any  part  of  the  year,  and  it  is  now  the  second  day  of 
November.  Last  week  we  dug  some  roots  that  weighed  fully  three  pounds 
each.  At  five  cents  per  pound  this  is  fifteen  cents  per  root,  which  makes 
quite  a  satisfactory  return  for  the  labor  and  capital  employed. 

In  order  to  see  whether  our  celery  compared  favorably  with  the  best 
raised  anywhere  else,  I  have  had  samples  of  the  finest  from  Michigan, 
from  Cleveland,  O.,  and  even  from  the  Arlington  market  gardens,  near 
Boston.  Some  of  the  Arlington  celery  weighed  three  pounds  to  the  root, 
but  it  was  on  account  of  the  enormous  suckers  growing  around  the  sides. 
I  should  call  ours  ahead  anything  that  we  have  seen.  Of  course,  fine  tilth, 
with  plenty  of  moisture,  and  not  too  much,  are  not  the  only  things  wanted; 
we  must  manure  also;  and  I  think  it  will  pay  well  to  manure  the  very 
best  ground  that  can  be  found  anywhere — at  least  such  is  my  experience. " 


60  DRAINAGE  AND  IRRIGATION. 

Here  is  evidence  of  the  complete  success  and  value  of  this  system, 
and  that  there  is  profit  in  its  adoption. 

As  the  hot  waters  are  used,  so  can,  and  should  be,  the  high  temper- 
ature waters  of  artesian  wells,  and  where  hot  springs  are  found  tropical 
productions  should  result. 


CHAPTER  IX. 


Cost  and  Profit  of  the  System. 

So  largely  will  the  cost  of  introducing  this  system  be  governed  by 
local  and  other  considerations,  that  to  name  any  fixed  sum  per  acre  is  not 
possible  or  wise.  We  will  only  say  it  can  and  will  be  covered  by  an 
amount  ranging  from  $30  to  $300  per  acre.  When  it  is  adopted  in  a  sec- 
tion where  stone  are  plenty  on  the  ground,  and  it  is  put  in  for  general 
farm  purposes,  and  with  abundant  storage  capacity,  the  work  done  in  large 
part  by  the  farmer  and  his  boys,  or  regularly  employed  help,  using  his 
team  and  plow  in  starting,  and,  as  far  as  possible,  sinking  trenches,  the 
cost  per  acre  will  not  amount  in  money  outlay  to  the  first-named  sum, 
while  the  last-named  will  cover  the  outlay  necessary  to  be  made  by  a 
market  gardener  or  grower  of  small  fruits,  who  applies  the  system  in  its 
most  perfect  form,  abundant  in  water  supply,  and  in  every  way  calculated 
to  force  production  to  the  highest  possible  point  in  quantity,  size,  and 
quality.  It  will  also  cover  cost  of  material  to  be  used  in  construction 
where  purchased,  sinking  of  trenches,  and  preparation  of  surface  soil. 

In  calculating  cost  of  adoption,  lay  out  your  land  in  form  as  desired. 
Ascertain  the  number  of  trenches,  fix  upon  the  length,  breadth,  and  depth, 
and  figure  cost  of  excavation.  If  stone  are  used  in  construction,  and 
can  be  obtained  on  or  near  the  plot,  no  expense  will  be  necessary  in  filling, 
other  than  labor  of  gathering  and  laying  in  the  stone  in  sucn  way  as  to 
give  the  greatest  amount  of  water  space.  If  stone,  tile,  planking,  ce- 
ment, or  other  material  must  be  purchased,  ascertain  the  amount  re- 
quired and  add  to  cost  of  trenching. 


A  NEW  SYSTEM  OF  AGRICULTURE.  61 

Add  to  these  the  cost  of  laying  the  material  to  be  used,  labor  of  re- 
covering the  trenches  and  overflow  drains,  and  you  have  the  cost,  approxi- 
mately at  least. 

Mr.  Cole,  on  his  model,  has  made  an  outlay  of  a  sum  not  exceeding 
$300  per  acre,  this  amount  covering  in  full  the  purchase  and  setting  of 
the  various  small  fruits,  vines,  and  fruit  trees  now  on  the  ground. 

In  the  construction  of  the  system,  and  fitting  of  the  soil,  every  part 
of  the  work  was  done  by  hired  labor,  and  a  large  part  of  it  when  wages 
were  high,  made  so  in  that  locality  by  the  demand  for  labor  which  grew 
out  of  the  opening  up  of  a  large  oil  and  natural  gas  territory. 

The  annual  sales  of  small  fruits  and  vegetables  now  made  from  this 
plot  of  ground  amount  to  a  large  per  cent,  in  interest  on  an  amount  five 
times  greater  than  the  outlay  made.  Five  acres  are  now  under  the  sys- 
tem, produce  in  money  value  more  than  any  fifty  acres  of  land  in  Alle- 
gany  County,  and  perhaps  in  the  State.  Space  and  time  will  not  allow  us  to 
give  an  extended  account  of  what  Mr.  Cole  has  accomplished,  but  here 
are  a  few  general  statements  : 

At  the  time  Mr.  Cole  began  his  work,  his  home  market  was  supplied 
wholly  from  outside  sources  with  early  vegetables  and  'small  fruits.  He 
now  furnishes  the  home  supply  in  large  part,  and  it  may  be  said,  "he  is 
carrying  coals  to  Newcastle,"  as  he  is  now  sending  small  fruits  into  the 
markets  of  fruit-growing  counties  of  Western  New  York,  the  size,  quality, 
and  fine  condition  of  his  products  giving  them  precedence  over  all  others, 
and  the  demand  for  them  has  become  so  great  he  is  not  able  to  meet  it, 
though  pushing  extension  as  fast  as  possible. 

Competition  under  old  methods  of  tillage  has  at  various  times  been 
undertaken  against  him  only  to  be  abandoned  after  a  short  trial. 

The  summer  of  1888  saw  the  small  fruit  supply  of  Western  New 
York,  with  the  single  exception  of  Mr.  Cole's,  largely  wiped  out,  caused 
by  the  deep  freezing  and  soil  heaving  of  the  winter  before,  late  frosts  in 
spring,  followed  by  severe  and  protracted  drouths. 

Contending  against  these  combined  adverse  influences,  Mr.  Cole's 
system  carried  him  through,  and  gave  him  a  yield  of  crops  much  in  excess 
of  the  best  possible  under  old  methods  with  all  conditions  in  their  favor. 

Since  adoption  of  the  system,  Mr.  Cole  has  grown,  one  season  with 
another,  from  300  to  500  bushels  strawberries  per  acre,  many  berries  8£ 
inches  in  circumference. 

Blackberries  per  acre,  800  bushels. 


62  DRAINAGE  AND  IRRIGATION. 

Raspberries,  per  acre,  from  400  to  600  bushels. 

Potatoes,  1,200  bushels  per  acre. 

Cabbage  weighing  15  to  20  Ibs.  per  head. 

Heads  of  cauliflower,  of  the  Snow-ball  variety,  in  twelve  days  from 
the  size  of  a  walnut,  to  a  perfect  head  18  inches  in  diameter. 

McLean's  Advanced  Peas,  with  pods  6  and  7  inches  long,  containing 
peas  as  large  as  frost  grapes. 

Ten  dollars'  worth  of  quinces,  in  one  season,  on  a  single  bush,  five 
years  old.  Some  of  these  quinces  were  as  large  as  a  pint  bowl. 

Three  cuttings  of  timothy  and  clover  in  a  single  season,  at  rate  of 
from  three  to  three  and  a  half  tons  to  the  crop. 

The  heads  of  the  first  cutting  averaged  9  inches  in  length;  the  second, 
8  inches  ;  the  third,  6  inches. 

Currants  doubled  in  size  and  yield. 

Evergreen  sweet  corn,  the  stalks  of  which  measured  16  feet  in  length. 

Apple  and  plum  trees  have  stood  under  loads  of  fruit  so  great  it  was 
ound  necessary,  early  in  the  season,  to  prop  every  limb  and  branch  which 
could  be  reached.  All  these  productions  have  been  perfect  in  every  way, 
and  absolutely  free  from  blemish  or  disease.  Of  these  productions  fuller 
accounts  will  be  found  later  on,  in  reports  made,  and  letters  written  by 
visitors  who  have  examined  into  his  work  and  its  results. 

We  think  our  readers  will  accordingly  admit  the  adoption  of  this  sys- 
tem will  be  found  eminently  profitable  to  market  gardeners  and  fruit  grow- 
ers ;  in  fact,  will  become  a  necessity,  as  in  the  active  competition  now  ex- 
isting, and  which  must  always  exist  in  the  future,  those  who  grow  their 
crops  under  methods  of  the  new  agriculture  will  gain  a  substantial  advant- 
age over  their  competitors,  and  place  themselves  in  position  of  security 
and  independence  of  the  vicissitudes  of  seasons. 

In  the  home  garden  it  will  pay,  since,  on  a  very  small  piece  of  ground 
yearly,  growths  of  fruits  and  vegetables  can  be  made  which  will  exceed 
the  requirements  of  a  large  family. 

When  put  in  for  garden  and  lawn,  or  applied  to  lands  surrounding 
the  house,  it  takes  up  all  the  stagnant  waters,  converts  their  solids  to  so- 
lution and  gases,  purifies  them  by  causing  their  constant  circulation,  either 
by  percolation  downward  through  the  soil  and  from  trench  to  trench,  or 
by  capillary  flow.  Moving  waters  are  always  living  waters,  and  are  never 
breeders  of  male-rial  and  typhoid  infections,  as  are  those  which  are  stag- 
nant. 


A  NEW  SYSTEM  OF  AGRICULTURE.  63 

For  general  farm  purposes  its  adoption  will  be  found  as  profitable,  as 
a  rule,  as  for  gardening.  As  it  increases,  improves,  and  assures  crops 
on  a  small  plot,  so  will  it  on  large  ones. 

To  no  crops  will  it  impart  greater  benefits  and  larger  growth  than  to 
those  of  grass,  potatoes,  and  apples.  Every  farmer  knows  that  grass  is 
the  most  desirable,  but  at  the  same  time  the  most  uncertain  crop  he  can 
raise.  It  costs  less  to  produce  it  than  any  other  crop  when  the  adverse 
influences  can  be  obviated. 

The  two  most  fatal  of  these  influences  are  drouth  and  heat,  the  one 
depriving  the  crop  of  the  moisture  necessary  to  it,  the  other  searing  it  as 
by  the  breath  of  a  furnace.  Fortunately  the  farmer  has  it  in  his  power 
to  overcome  these  by  that  system  of  subirrigation,  which  saves  and  stores 
water  for  use  when  needed,  gathering  and  imparting  nutrition  to  the  roots 
of  plants  during  the  entire  year,  inspiring  the  utmost  spring,  summer,  and 
autumn  growth  possible.  On  this  subject  we  will  once  more  quote  from 
Mr.  Henry  Stewart : 

"  The  permanent  meadow  is  a  very  unusual  adjunct  to  an  American 
farm.  Our  climate  is  not  naturally  well  adapted  to  the  continued  growth 
of  grass.  Our  hot,  dry  summers  are  unfavorable.  Generally  it  may  be 
stated  as  beyond  question,  that  the  yield  of  grass  is  proportionate  to  the 
supply  of  water.  As  has  been  previously  stated,  no  solid  nutriment 
reaches  any  plant  except  as  supplied  to  it  in  solution  in  water.  What  are 
the  ultimate  possibilities  of  growth  in  any  crop  is  unknown  to  us,  but  it 
would  seem  as  though  they  depended  greatly  upon  the  supply  of  water 
that  can  be  absorbed,  sufficient  nutriment,  of  course,  being  provided. 

Rye  grass,  upon  irrigated  fields  richly  fertilized,  has  grown  at  the  rate 
of  one  inch  per  day,  and  repeated  cuttings  have  been  made  at  intervals 
of  fourteen  days,  during  a  season  of  several  months.  Crops  of  grass 
upon  irrigated  fields  of  a  total  weight  of  more  than  80  tons  per  acre  have 
been  reported  by  trustworthy  English  farmers  in  one  season. 

Irrigated  grass  fields  in  Italy  support  easily  two  head  of  fattening  cat- 
tle per  acre,  every  year,  and  have  long  done  so.  In  hundreds  of  locali- 
ties in  European  countries  are  irrigated  meadows,  which  have  borne  grass 
without  any  sign  of  deterioration  within  the  memory  of  the  inhabitants, 
or  the  knowledge  of  readers  of  local  histories,  although  the  crop  has  been 
cut  and  removed  every  year  during  this  indefinite  period.  Whether  or 
not  these  immense  yields  could  be  further  increased  by  more  skillful  man- 
agement is  not  necessary  to  inquire.  Those  products  are  so  far  beyond 


64  DRAINAGE  AND  IRRIGATION. 

the  dreams  of  an  American  farmer,  that  they  may  well  be  considered 
fabulous.  But  there  is  no  reason  to  doubt  the  facts.  On  the  contrary, 
they  should  be  used  as  a  stimulus  for  us  to  adopt,  whenever  practicable, 
the  methods  by  which  these  crops  are  produced. 

The  average  product  of  grass  upon  our  rich  bottom  lands,  will  not 
exceed  two  tons  per  acre,  and  upon  uplands  one  ton  per  acre  is  a  fair 
average  yield.  After  a  few  years  the  best  seeded  of  our  meadows  begin 
to  deteriorate  and  run  out. 

A  change  of  crop  is  made,  and  the  meadows  are  once  more  seeded 
down,  to  run  out  again  in  a  few  years.  The  cause  of  the  failure  is  the 
heats  an  3  drouths  which  follow  the  hay  harvest,  and  which  cause  a  ces- 
sation of  growth  until  they  are  past.  Beneath  a  temperature  which  would 
be  genial  and  invigorating  to  plant  growth  with  sufficient  moisture,  the 
grass  dies  for  want  of  the  substances  that  water  would  afford. 

The  farms  of  most  European  countries  consist  of  but  a  few  acres  in 
extent. 

This  is  notably  so  of  Italy,  Spain,  France,  Portugal,  and  Holland, 
where  a  farmer  who  owns  and  cultivates  twenty-five  acres  is  looked  upon 
as  a  landholder  of  more  wealth  and  importance,  by  his  neighbors,  than  is 
the  American  farmer  by  his  countrymen,  who  owns  and  tills  his  hundreds. 

These  small  farms,  when  owned  by  the  cultivator,  are  made  so  produc- 
tive by  every  known  method  of  high  tillage,  that  they  place  the  owner 
and  his  family  in  position  of  independence.  Already  the  days  of  large 
farms  in  this  country  are  numbered.  Owners  and  purchasers  of  farms  are 
fast  finding  out  that  one  acre  properly  tilled  is  capable  of  returning  in 
yield  more  of  profit  than  three  as  usually  worked,  and  are  cutting  up  their 
present  holdings,  or  making  their  purchases  in  farms  of  fewer  acres.  While 
this  is  so  in  all  parts  of  the  country,  it  is  particularly  so  in  the  South, 
where  the  old  plantations  of  hundreds  of  acres  have  made  owners  land- 
poor  and  brankrupt  tax-paying. 

The  possibilities  of  the  small  farm  here  are  as  yet  unknown,  and 
when  we  tell  our  readers  that  five  or  ten  acres,  well  cultivated,  and  sup- 
plied with  abundant  water,  will  yield,  in  the  course  of  ten  years,  as  much 
profit  as  fifty  or  a  hundred  acres,  equally  well  cultivated,  but  without  any 
provision  for  the  necessary  moisture,  we  are  not  overdrawing  the  fact. 

Whether  owning  or  purchasing,  will  it  not  pay  the  farmer  to  put  the 
price  of  every  other  acre  into  an  improvement  which  will  give  him  com- 
mand of  the  waters  which  nourish  and  assure  his  crops  ?  In  so  doing  it 


A  NEW  SYSTEM  OF  AGRICULTURE.  65 

is  within  his  power  to  increase  production  many  fold,  develop  growth 
more  perfectly,  command  a  more  ready  market,  secure  better  prices,  and 
save  labor  and  taxes. 

To  close  this  chapter,  we  copy  the  following  from  the  pen  of  Prof. 
M.  A.  Curtis,  of  Jacksonville,  Fla.,  editor  of  the  Florida  Farmer  and 
Fruit  Grower,  it  bearing  strongly  on  the  question  of  profit  to  be  de- 
rived from  Mr.  Cole's  system  : 

"  SUB-IRRIGATED  GARDENS. 

In  the  advertising  of  Florida  as  it  has  been  carried  on  for  a  score  ol 
years,  the  practice  has  been  to  hold  up  the  orange  as  the  leading 
attraction,  while  market-gardening  is  made  to  figure  as  a  secondary 
industry,  a  degree  less  genteel  than  orange  growing,  but  a  very  conven- 
ient resource  for  meeting  current  expenses  'while  the  grove  is  coming 
into  bearing.'  However  the  other  industrial  resources  of  Florida  may 
stand  the  test  of  experience,  candor  compels  me  to  say  that  market- 
gardening  in  this  State,  as  a  rule,  is  as  precarious  an  industry  as  can  be 
engaged  in.  In  the  neighborhood  of  the  leading  winter  resorts,  where 
there  is  a  good  local  demand,  vegetable-growing  may  prove  profitable, 
especially  if  no  severe  frosts  occur  in  winter.  Strawberries  pay  well 
where  they  are  grown  systematically,  as  at  Lawtey,  and  good  shipping 
facilities  are  at  hand  ;  but,  as  a  rule,  market-gardeners  hardly  recover 
expenses. 

With  natural  waste,  stealage,  and  high  freight-rates,  the  net  returns 
from  market-gardening  seldom  exceed  the  expenses  of  packing  and 
production.  Other  obstacles  which  are  encountered  alike  by  those  who 
grow  vegetables  for  marketing  or  home  consumption,  are  found  in  the 
chances  of  severe  frosts  in  winter  and  drouth  in  early  spring,  the  latter 
amounting  almost  to  a  certainty.  In  the  southern  half  of  the  peninsula 
danger  from  frost  need  hardly  be  taken  into  account,  but  in  the  northern 
half,  winter  gardens,  which  are  the  only  ones  planted  for  profit,  are  con- 
stantly in  peril. 

Drouths  in  Florida  are  particularly  trying  on  cultivated  plants 
whose  feeding  roots  are  within  a  foot  or  two  of  the  surface.  The  soil 
in  nearly  all  parts  of  the  State  is  sandy,  and  lacks  the  capillarity  by 
which  soils  of  firm  texture  are  enabled  to  withstand  drouths.  This 
evil  is  increased  by  tillage,  which  separates  the  coarse  particles  still  more 
from  each  other,  and  it  is  lessened  by  admixture  of  such  substances  as 


66  DRAINAGE  AND  IRRIGATION. 

lime  and  muck.  On  wild  vegetation,  growing  on  undisturbed  land, 
drouth  seems  to  inflict  less  damage  than  it  does  in  other  States.  With- 
out pausing  to  consider  these  seemingly  contradictory  phenomena,  it 
suffices  to  say  that  the  spring  drouth  in  Florida  is  an  obstacle  that  can- 
not be  overcome  or  counteracted  except  by  some  system  of  irrigation. 

In  a  soil  so  porous  as  that  of  Florida  surface  irrigation  is  impracti- 
cable. Windmills  and  other  mechanical  means  of  raising  water  are  too 
expensive,  except  in  peculiarly  favorable  locations.  Artesian  wells  are 
most  satisfactory,  but  they  are  not  for  poor  men  ;  and  after  a  flow  of 
water  is  obtained  there  arises  the  problem  of  distributing  it  to  best 
advantage. 

On  the  eastern  coast  of  Florida,  at  Daytona,  and  a  few  other  places, 
there  has  come  into  use  within  two  or  three  years  a  system  of  sub-irriga- 
tion, which  answers  admirably  for  what  may  be  termed  intensive  garden- 
ing, and  in  localities  where  there  is  good  demand  for  garden  produce. 
It  is  a  modification  of  Mr.  A.  N.  Cole's  system — an  adaptation  of  it  to 
sandy  land,  the  principle  involved  being  the  retention  of  water  supply 
just  beneath  the  roots,  so  that  by  capillary  action  it  may  readily  be  sup- 
plied to  them  as  needed.  The  first  essential  is  an  abundant  supply  of 
water,  as  from  an  artesian  well,  and  the  second  is  a  subterranean  reser- 
voir or  trench  which  will  retain  a  small  quantity  of  water,  and  allow  an 
excess,  as  from  heavy  rainfall,  to  escape. 

The  productiveness  of  the  first  gardens  thus  irrigated  was  so  sur- 
prising that  last  winter  a  stock  company  was  formed,  with  a  capital  of 
$50,000,  for  the  establishment  of  an  extensive  garden  at  Ormond.  In 
their  construction  parallel  trenches  are  dug  two  hundred  feet  long  by- 
four  feet  wide  and  twenty-two  inches  deep,  they  being  sixteen  feet  apart 
between  sides  and  ends.  A  thin  mortar  is  then  prepared,  composed  of 
one  part  Portland  cement  and  seven  parts  sand,  which  is  poured  over  the 
bottom  within  a  rough  curbing  of  loose  boards.  After  being  smoothed 
to  a  level  by  drawing  a  short  piece  of  timber  over  it,  this  bed  is  allowed 
three  days  to  harden.  Then  a  border  is  made  all  around  by  pouring 
the  same  kind  of  mortar  between  two  courses  of  boards  four  inches 
wide,  set  on  edge  one  inch  apart,  the  space  within  the  border  meas- 
uring two  hundred  feet  long  by  three  feet  wide.  After  the  sides  have 
been  left  three  days  longer  to  harden,  the  inner  boards  are  removed  and 
the  whole  inner  surface  receives  a  thin  coat  of  pure  cement,  in  order 
that  it  may  be  water-tight. 


A  NEW  SYSTEM  OF  AGRICULTURE.  67 

At  either  end  of  the  cemented  bottom  are  set  wooden  boxes  six 
inches  square,  rising  six  inches  above  the  surface  of  the  ground.  Through 
these  the  gardener  may  see  how  much  water  is  in  the  trench,  and  regulate 
the  supply  accordingly.  Next  to  these  are  laid  lengthwise  of  the  ce- 
mented bottom  five  courses  of  narrow  inch  boards.  Crosswise  of  these  a 
second  layer  of  boards  is  put  on  closer  together  than  the  first.  Then 
Palmetto  leaves  are  laid  over  the  boards  and  the  trench  is  filled  in  with 
earth.  The  water  from  the  well  is  led  through  the  garden  in  two-inch 
pipes  and  distributed  to  the  beds  in  half-inch  pipes,  which  open  through 
faucets  in  one  of  the  boxes  that  lead  to  the  bottom  of  each  bed. 

It  is  found  that  by  keeping  up  the  supply  of  water  in  the  trenches 
the  ground  over  and  between  them  is  kept  sufficiently  moist  in  the  driest 
weather,  and  that  a  most  luxuriant  growth  of  vegetables  can  be  obtained. 
In  order  to  economize  space,  different  kinds  of  vegetables  are  planted  in 
alternate  rows — for  example,  several  rows  of  beets,  radishes,  and  lettuce 
between  two  rows  of  cabbages.  A  close  succession  is  kept  up  also,  the 
intention  being  to  have  the  ground  constantly  and  fully  occupied  with  the 
most  profitable  varieties.  The  cost  of  such  beds  is  considerable,  but  it 
is  found  that  one  measuring  four  by  fifty  feet  can  be  prepared  for  $15  or 
$20,  and  this  affords  a  garden  spot  sixteen  by  sixty-six  feet  in  area,  on 
which  may  be  grown  a  very  large  quantity  of  vegetables  of  quality  and 
size  not  obtainable  in  any  ordinary  garden.  An  acre  of  ground  thus  pre- 
pared costs  $1,000,  but  it  is  believed  that  it  will  produce  to  the  value  of 
$3,000  in  a  year.  The  length  of  the  growing  season  in  Florida  is  greatly 
in  favor  of  this  system,  and  it  is  not  improbable  that  it  will  come  into 
general  use  in  localities  where  there  is  large  demand  for  fresh  vegetables 
in  winter  and  spring.  It  is,  of  course,  equally  well  adapted  for  flower 
gardens."  A.  H.  CURTISS. 

Jacksonville,  Fla. 

In  the  above  article  this  method  is  spoken  of  as  being  a  modification 
of  Mr.  Cole's  system.  This  is  an  error.  It  is  his  system  pure  and  simple  ; 
principle,  method,  and  materials  used  all  being  covered  by  him. 


CHAPTER  X. 


Mr.  Cole's  Home  and  Model  Plot. 

At  Wellsville,  Allegany  County,  N.  Y.,  on  the  line  of  the  Erie  R.  R., 
and  in  the  Upper  Genessee  Valley,  is  the  now  far-famed  "  Home  on  the 
Hillside,"  where  dwells  and  works  Mr.  A.  N.  Cole,  the  originator  and  de- 
monstrator of  this  new  system  of  agriculture. 

Here  is  located  his  model,  which  now  comprises  about  five  acres,  and 
here  results  of  production  have  been  accomplished,  which  astonish  be- 
holders, and  exceed  anything  heretofore  realized  by  any  method  of  til- 
lage. Here,  in  midsummer,  can  undoubtedly  be  seen  a  greater  wealth 
of  production  than  can  be  found  on  any  equal  area,  not  under  glass,  in 
America,  and  here  have  the  benefits  and  results  claimed  for  this  system 
in  the  foregoing  pages  been  accomplished  and  demonstrated. 

The  location  is  a  sightly  one,  the  house  a  solid,  comfortable,  and 
attractive  home ;  but  the  lands  surrounding  it,  in  their  original  condition, 
could  not  well  have  been  more  unpromising  or  unproductive. 

It  is  a  strong,  clay  soil,  underlaid  by  hardpan,  and  Allegany  hard- 
pan  is  proverbial  for  reaching  the  third  rail  in  the  fence.  Situated  on  a 
hillside,  his  land  was  washed,  gullied,  and  cut  up  by  the  rains  and  melting 
snows  of  winter,  remaining  wet  and  cold  all  through  the  spring,  and  until 
the  summer  sun  baked  it  into  crusts  or  lumps  almost  impossible  to  pul- 
verize. A  scanty  growth  of  white  daisies,  Canada  thistles,  and  coarse 
grass  was  the  only  crop  it  seemed  capable  of  producing,  even  under  the 
best  methods  of  cultivation  which  could  be  applied  to  it.  In  the  spring 
of  1882,  Mr.  Cole  began  quietly,  and  unknown  to  any  outside  of  his  own 
family,  to  construct,  on  the  steepest  and  poorest  of  his  land,  a  model  of 
the  system  he  had  evolved  by  years  of  study,  observation,  and  experi- 
ment. But  a  small  plot  was  completed  in  this  year,  but  the  results  from 
it  equaled  and  surpassed  Mr.  Cole's  most  sanguine  hopes  and  expecta- 
tions. Eighteen  hundred  and  eighty-three  saw  this  little  spot  of  ground 
producing  vegetables  and  fruits  largely  in  excess  of  the  amount  which 
could  be  used  by  Mr.  Cole's  family,  and  the  surplus  was  put  into  the 


A  NEW  SYSTEM  OF  AGRICULTURE.  69. 

home  market,  where  their  size,  beauty,  and  perfection  attracted  the  at- 
tention of  the  public,  and  brought  people  in  large  numbers  to  see  his 
work  and  ways.  During  the  spring,  summer,  and  fall  of  1883  and  1884, 
the  work  of  trenching,  fitting,  and  setting  small  fruits  was  carried  on  as 
rapidly  as  means  and  competent  operatives  could  be  found  with  which  to 
do  the  work.  The  end  of  the  year  1884  found  about  two  acres  completed, 
not  perfectly  by  any  means,  as  some  indifferent  workmen  had  disobeyed 
orders  in  essential  regards,  and  in  others  had  done  their  work  in  a  most 
careless  way. 

In  the  month  of  July,  1885,  a  formal  introduction  of  the  system  was 
made  to  the  world.  On  the  yth  day  of  that  month  there  gathered  at  Mr. 
Cole's  home  about  one  hundred  of  the  leading  farmers,  professional  men, 
and  representatives  of  the  press. 

By  these  a  careful,  thorough,  and  exhaustive  examination  of  soil.  crop,, 
plant,  fruit,  and  system  was  made,  and  in  every  instance  their  comments 
and  reports  were  flattering  in  the  extreme  to  Mr.  Cole,  his  work,  and  meth- 
ods. Some  of  these  reports  we  will  now  give,  as  they  answer  the  double  pur- 
pose of  showing  Mr.  Cole's  methods  and  the  results.  The  reader  will  notice 
that  in  the  preceding  pages,  not  a  claim  is  made  for  this  system  that  is 
not  supported  by  reported  results  made  by  men  who  had  or  have  no  in- 
terest in  the  system  in  a  pecuniary  point  of  view. 

The  opinion  of  Dr.  I.  P.  Roberts,  of  Ithaca,  expressed  to  Mr.  Cole, 
was  as  follows:  "Yes,  Mr.  Cole,  you  do  all  you  claim  to  accomplish. 
You  gather  the  waters  into  your  reservoirs  and  pass  them  through  the 
soil  rather  than  leaving  them  to  run  riot  along  the  surface.  You  trans- 
form this  hitherto  shunned  and  dreaded  hardpan  into  soft,  porous,  pro-- 
ductive,  and  best  of  soils  to  the  depth  of  your  trenches,  thereby  enabling 
the  roots  of  vegetation  to  descend  deeply  into  the  earth.  You  remove 
the  stone  operating  as  obstructions  and  diseasing  the  roots  of  plants, 
putting  the  stone  where  they  will  do  the  most  good.  You  provide 
against  floods  and  drouths ;  and  to  a  great  extent,  if  not  wholly,  defeat 
the  effects  of  frost." 

Extract  from  the  report  appearing  in  the  Buffalo  Express  : 

•'  Yesterday  was  a  notable  day  for  Wellsville,  or  at  least  for  one  of 
its  most  widely-known  inhabitants.  Nestled  away  among  the  ragged 
Allegany  hills,  this  snug  town  of  about  4,000  people  has  in  common 
with  the  rest  of  the  world  its  ambitions  and  its  celebrities.  The  par- 
ticular industry  that  yesterday  took  along  stride  towards  popular  recor- 


70  DRAINAGE  AND  IRRIGATION. 

nition  and  favor  is  one  growing  up  on  the  western  hill  of  the  town,  and 
known  as  Coles's  system  of  underground  irrigation.  Reckoned  either 
as  a  freak  or  curiosity,  or  better  than  both  of  these,  as  a  step  into  the 
next  century  in  the  domain  of  agriculture,  this  little  plot  of  five  acres 
of  land,  only  two  of  which  are  as  yet  developed,  will  bear  the  closest 
inspection  of  either  the  skeptic  or  willing  convert. 

But  perhaps  everybody  is  not  aware  of  the  system,  now  under 
practical  trial,  which  promises  to  revolutionize  the  world's  agriculture — 
nay,  according  to  its  enthusiastic  author,  has  already  done  so.  Some 
four  years  ago  Mr.  A.  N.  Cole,  better  known  as  the  'father  of  the  Re- 
publican party,'  and  the  veteran  editor  of  the  Genessee  Valley  Free  Press, 
began  to  put  in  operation  a  system  of  agriculture  based  on  underground 
irrigation,  an  idea  entirely  his  own.  He  had  been  studying  the  system 
a  number  of  years  before  that  time,  but  had  not  until  then  carried  it  into 
practice.  There  were  drawbacks  that  need  not  be  mentioned  here  ;  and 
there  was  of  course  a  town  full  of  people  who  laughed  at  the  idea  as  a 
crazy  notion  sure  to  come  to  nothing.  But  Mr.  Cole  persevered,  and  it 
is  safe  to  say  that  yesterday  he  was  able  to  demonstrate  his  success  so 
entirely  as  to  ensure  him  the  title  of  the  proudest  man  in  Western  New 
York,  and  perhaps  out  of  it  as  well." 

From  beginning  to  end  of  a  two-column  article,  commendatory 
throughout,  the  correspondent  of  The  Express  drew  a  faithful  picture  of 
what  he  saw  on  this  occasion. 

Report  of  Mr.  Charles  A.  Green,  a  special  correspondent  of  the 
N.  Y.  Tribune. 

After  a  few  preliminary  remarks,  Mr.  Green  said : 

"  Mr.  Cole  has  been  studying  irrigation  since  he  was  seventeen 
years  old,  but  his  present  system  flashed  upon  him  within  the  past  few 
years.  He  has  not  yet  extended  his  working  model  over  more  than  two 
to  three  acres.  I  shall  attempt  to  explain  what  I  saw,  and  to  state  the 
claims  of  Mr.  Cole  as  clearly  as  I  can,  considering  our  brief  and  fre- 
quently interrupted  conversation. 

We  were  first  shown  a  patch  of  strawberries  containing  nearly  two 
acres.  These  plants  were  grown  in  hills  about  eighteen  inches  apart 
each  way,  mulched  with  forest  leaves,  liberally  fertilized  with  yard  ma- 
nure, and  irrigated  after  the  new  method.  I  was  told  by  the  former 
owner  of  the  hillside  that  when  he  sold  it  to  Mr.  Cole  it  was  an  unpro- 
ductive piece  of  ground.  The  soil  proper  was  not  over  ten  or  twelve 


A  NEW  SYSTEM  OF  AGRICULTURE.  71 

inches  deep  and  rested  upon  a  tenacious,  clayey  hardpan — this  was  im- 
pervious to  water.  He  said  the  frost  acted  so  seriously  upon  this  soil, 
on  account  of  the  surplus  water  not  being  able  to  escape  through  the 
subsoil,  that  it  was  almost  impossible  to  keep  plants  alive  in  it  during 
winter.  Even  the  fence  posts  would  be  thrown  out  by  the  frosts  in  a 
very  short  time.  A  prominent  contractor,  who  was  walking  by  my  side 
at  the  time,  said  that  all  that  section  of  the  country  was  underlaid  by 
this  peculiar  subsoil,  which  is  a  great  drawback  to  plant  growth.  I  was 
also  informed  by  this  same  gentleman  that  this  part  of  Allegany  County 
was  not  favorable  for  strawberry-growing,  or  other  fruit  except  apples ; 
and  that  the  supply  of  small  fruits  is  received  largely  from  other  sections. 
Mr.  Cole  has  planted  numerous  varieties  of  strawberries  upon  his  side- 
hill,  among  which  I  recognized  the  Bidwell,  Sharpless,  and  other  familiar 
varieties.  The  fruit  was  of  an  astonishing  size,  and  grew  in  great  abund- 
ance. While  I  live  in  a  strawberry  country,  and  am  myself  a  strawberry 
grower,  I  cannot  remember  when  I  have  seen  so  fine  a  display  of  straw- 
berries growing  upon  the  vines  as  I  saw  here.  There  were,  however, 
evidences  of  high  culture.  A  gentleman  by  my  side  echoed  my  senti- 
ments by  remarking  that  we  could  increase  the  size  of  fruits  in  our  own 
gardens  by  such  thorough  cultivation  as  this.  Adjoining  the  strawberries 
were  growing  different  kinds  of  garden  crops ;  also  currants,  raspberries, 
blackberries,  potatoes,  and  a  few  fruit  trees.  At  one  point,  where  the 
ground  was  terraced,  I  noticed,  growing  on  the  rugged  edge,  a  row  of 
onions.  I  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  while  these  onions  were  on 
the  very  brink,  there  was  no  indication  of  their  being  disturbed  by  wash- 
ing of  the  soil,  as  might  have  been  expected  in  such  a  position.  In  fact, 
everything  showed  that  in  no  place  had  the  rainfall  run  down  the  surface 
as  ordinarily,  to  the  detriment  of  everything  growing  thereon,  as  the 
water  passed  into  the  drains  underlying." 

Report  of  Mr.  R.  S.  Lewis,  of  the  Progressive  Batavian: 
"  Mr.  Cole's  farm,  consisting  of  five  acres  of  what  was  four  years  ago, 
and  a  part  of  which  is  now,  a  sterile  hillside  of  clayey  soil,  so  poor  as  to 
grudgingly  yield  sufficient  substance  to  grow  field  daisies.  It  is  as  steep 
as  the  steepest  part  of  Burleigh  Hill  Pavillion,  the  Bethany  hill  just  east 
of  the  Center,  or  any  other  hill  in  Genesee  County  of  which  we  have  any 
knowledge  ;  and  as  to  its  ever  becoming  profitably  productive,  we  don't 
believe  there  is  a  foot  of  land  in  all  our  county  which  was  equally  un- 
promising. Some  thirty  years  ago  Mr.  Cole  conceived  the  idea  that 


72  DRAINAGE  AND  IRRIGATION. 

plant  life  might  be  greatly,  almost  immeasurably,  stimulated  by  under- 
ground irrigation.  He  had  neither  time  nor  opportunity  then  to  perfect 
and  test  his  thought,  but  it  continued  to  simmer  through  him,  and  to  re- 
call itself  to  his  attention  again  and  again  as  the  years  passed  on. 

His  conviction  on  the  matter  was  greatly  strengthened  and  stimu- 
lated by  a  conversation  with  Mr.  Horace  Greeley,  in  which  that  gentle- 
man told  him  what  he  had  heard  of  the  wondrous  productiveness  near 
Los  Angeles,  Cal.,  where  vegetation  was  fed  by  a  subterranean  river.  Mr. 
Cole  had  thought  and  investigated  until  he  had  no  doubt  about  the  fact 
of  a  theory;  but  how  to  accomplish  the  irrigation — how  to  make  his 
thought  practical — was  the  question. 

At  last  how  to  do  it  dawned  suddenly  upon  him ;  the  mists  of 
questionings  and  doubts  were  gone ;  his  dream  of  the  years  had  material- 
ized ;  his  vision  was  clear.  Where  could  he  better  test  and  demonstrate 
the  truth  and  value  of  his  discovery  than  on  his  own  sterile,  unpromising 
hillside  ?  Along  its  eastern  front  runs  a  highway,  with  wayside  gutter  ad- 
joining his  land.  Parallel  with  this,  and  some  forty  to  fifty  feet  apart,  and 
across  about  half  his  land  to  its  highest  boundary,  he  caused  a  series  of 
trenches,  about  two  and  one-half  feet  wide  by  four  and  a  half  to  five  feet 
deep,  to  be  dug,  and  filled  to  within  eighteen  inches  of  the  surface  with 
coarse  large  stone,  covered  with  loose  flat  stone,  for  subterranean  water 
reservoirs.  These  reservoirs  were  connected  by  numerous  shallow  and 
smaller  trenches  partly  filled  with  small  stones  at  about  eighteen  inches 
from  the  surface,  and  designed  to  carry  off  from  trench  to  tiench  all  sur- 
plus water.  After  the  laying  of  the  stone  all  the  trenches,  large  and 
small,  are  covered  with  straw,  or  litter  of  any  kind,  as  in  ordinary  ditch- 
ing, and  then  covered  with  the  soil  again.  Thus  each  large  trench  is  a 
reservoir  capable  of  holding  from  two  to  two  and  a  half  feet  of  water, 
through  its  entire  length  before  it  reaches  the  height  where  carried  off  by 
the  cross  trenches.  The  waters  from  the  rains  and  melting  snows,  in- 
stead of  passing  off  in  surface  rills  and  channels,  is  caught  in  these 
reservoirs  and  slowly  and  continuously  filters  through  the  soil  from  trench 
to  trench — sweats  through  it,  so  to  speak,  rendering  it  porous,  pliab'e, 
spongy — always  sufficiently  damp  to  feed  and  stimulate  vegetation  to  the 
highest  degree,  and  yet  always  sufficiently  dry  to  be  in  the  best  possible 
order  for  cultivation. 

On  a  part  of  his  plantation  which  Mr.  Cole  has  thus  treated,  he 
last  year  cut  three  crops  of  timothy  grass,  each  crop  being  in  the  head 


A  NEW  SYSTEM  OF  AGRICULTURE.  73 

when  cut.  Most  of  the  trenched  ground  is  now  planted  with  blackberry 
and  raspberry  bushes  and  strawberry  vines.  What  the  berry  bushes  will 
do  yet  is  only  conjectural — they  have  a  strong,  healthy,  prominent  develop- 
ment— but  the  strawberry  vines,  it  is  utterly  impossible  to  describe  their 
wondrous  wealth  of  productiveness.  The  vines  are  literally  loaded  with 
berries,  and  their  average  size  is  marvelous.  Many  were  readily  found 
which  measured  nearly  eight  inches  in  circumference,  and  there  were  no 
small  berries.  Mr.  Cole  proudly  said  :  I  have  berries  this  year  as  large 
as  peaches.  He  claimed  he  would  harvest  this  year  more  bushels  of 
strawberries  from  his  vines  than  any  farmer  would  grow  bushels  of  pota- 
toes from  the  same  area  of  ground. 

One  or  two  facts  more  are  worthy  of  mention.  First.  While  the 
land  all  around  this  plot  was  frozen  several  feet  deep  last  winter,  this 
ground  was  not  frozen — the  plants  grew  the  winter  through. 

2d.  One  of  the  deluging  rains,  so  prevalent  this  season,  poured  down 
upon  Wellsville  a  few  days  since,  and  while  the  hillsides  all  around  were 
furrowed  and  ditched  by  the  running  waters,  this  plot  was  not  washed  in 
the  least.  The  torrents  sank  into  its  porous  soil,  and  were  caught  in  its 
reservoirs,  and  the  surplus  passed  off  through  its  transverse  trenches  with- 
out in  the  least  disturbing  its  surface  or  the  crops  grown  thereon." 

Extract  from  the  report  of  Mr.  James  McCann,  President,  and  Mr. 
G.  W.  Hoffman,  ex-President  of  the  Farmers'  Club  of  Elmira.  Mr.  Mc- 
Cann, since  President  of  New  York  State  Agricultural  Society. 

The  opening  of  the  report  being  descriptive  of  the  construction  of 
the  system,  we  omit  that  part. 

"The  soil  is  what  I  may  call  clay  loam,  with  stones  intermixed,  but 
no  appearance  of  sand,  the  close,  compact  subsoil  not  easily  penetrated. 

I  refer  to  condition  before  treatment,  and  of  this  I  had  fair  opportu- 
nity to  observe  in  the  adjoining  land  not  yet  brought  under  the  new  sys- 
tem ;  also  in  an  excavation  in  progress  where  workmen  had  to  strike 
heavy  blows  with  their  picks  to  penetrate  the  hard  clay.  The  land  treated 
by  Mr.  Cole  was  originally  part  of  a  considerable  tract  that  was  regarded 
as  extremely  poor,  and  my  observations  lead  me  to  conclude  that  the  es- 
timate was  just.  The  most  striking  effect  of  the  treatment,  as  it  seemed 
to  me,  was  entire  change  of  character,  particularly  mechanical  condition, 
due,  in  large  part,  no  doubt,  to  the  very  thorough  manipulation,  for  it  is 
not  comprised  in  the  trenching  alone. 

The   entire   area  is  dug  up  to  the  depth   of  fifteen:  inches,  and  all 


74  DRAINAGE  AND  IRRIGATION.    , 

stones  of  any  considerable  size,  even  down  to  an  inch  in  diameter,  re- 
moved, thus  changing  mechanical  conditions  to  such  a  degree  that  one  is 
impressed  with  the  great  difference  between  the  land  treated  and  that  im- 
miately  adjoining. 

You  step  upon  the  trenched  land  anywhere  and  you  find  the  soil 
yields  to  pressure  of  the  feet,  not  a  spot  where  it  is  not  soft  and  yielding  ; 
but  on  the  land  adjoining,  it  is  hard,  and  the  foot  makes  no  impression 
whatever. 

Another  change  is  in  color.  That  hard,  forbidding  clay,  has  taken 
the  appearance  of  muck,  or,  at  least,  the  color  of  muck  and  loam  inter- 
mixed. Its  texture  is  aptly  described  by  Mr.  Cole,  who  calls  it  an  earth- 
sponge. 

We  were  called  to  examine  strawberries  from  plants  set,  as  we  were 
informed,  last  October,  and  I  am  free  to  say  that  the  plat  was  a  very  in- 
teresting object,  inviting  study.  There  was  a  full  crop  of  most  remarkable 
berries — remarkable  in  size,  color,  and  quality.  I  cannot  undertake  to 
estimate  the  yield,  but  it  was  certainly  very  large.  I  called  Mr.  McCann's 
attention  to  one  plant  of  older  setting  that  had  ripe  berries,  and  others 
in  the  various  stages  of  growth,  enough,  I  thought,  to  fill  my  hat  if  they 
could  be  picked  at  one  time.  One  peculiarity  of  these  berries  was  the 
absence  of  what  may  be  termed  a  core,  or  hard  stem  in  the  middle ;  they 
were  juicy  and  tender  all  the  way  through.  As  to  foliage,  I  can  only  say 
that  I  never  saw  anything  like  it.  I  measured  a  leaf  that  was  five  and 
one-half  inches  across,  and  I  plucked  a  broader  one,  with  Mr.  Cole's  con- 
sent, and  brought  it  home. 

I  must  say  that  the  changes  wrought  in  the  soil  and  its  products 
constituted  a  great  surprise. 

As  to  the  soil,  I  could  judge  by  comparison  with  land  that  mtst 
have  been  originally  of  the  same  character.  It  now  lies  hard  and  com- 
pact adjoining  the  renovated  earth,  that,  under  Mr.  Cole's  treatment,  has 
certainly  become  very  fertile,  whether  with  manure  in  abundant  supply, 
or  not,  I  am  not  prepared  to  say.  The  soil  under  treatment  has  the  ap- 
pearance of  being  thoroughly  enriched  with  manure  ;  then  there  is  the 
water  supply  for  the  roots  to  reach  and  use,  obviating  drouth  apparently, 
and,  besides,  there  is  entire  freedom  from  washing.  Heavy  showers  had 
fallen  in  the  week  before  our  arrival,  but  there  was  not  the  slightest  ap- 
pearance of  washing,  and  Mr.  Cole  informed  us  that  all  danger  from  wash- 
ing was  obviated;  a  statement  which  I  can  accept  as  true,  for  he  has 


A  NEW  SYSTEM  OF  AGRICULTURE. 


75 


provided  reservoirs  into  which  all  surplus  of  water  must  pass,  and  if  there 
is  too  much  the  overflow  runs  from  one  to  another  reservoir.  Besides  all 
this,  the  earth  worked  to  find  tilth  serves  as  a  sponge  to  take  in  a  great 
deal  of  moisture  and  retain  it  for  the  use  of  the  plants. 

When  I  see  a  crop  of  strawberries  much  larger  than  I  have  ever 
seen  under  other  conditions,  no  dead  leaves,  no  runners,  growth  most 
luxuriant,  and  long  succession  in  bearing,  I  must  say  that  results  are  con- 
vincing. There  were  other  proofs,  about  which  I  am  not  so  well  pre- 
pared to  judge.  For  instance,  an  apple  tree  standing  on  this  improved 
land  was  reported  worthless,  its  fiuit  gnarled  and  valuless  before  the  land 
was  trenched,  now  bearing  largely  and  fruit  of  fine  quality.  Of  course, 
I  cannot  say  how  much  difference  there  is  between  the  tree  as  it  now  ap- 
pears and  as  it  was  before  the  land  was  improved.  I  observed,  however, 
a  young  tree,  the  trunk  five  or  six  inches  in  diameter,  perhaps,  its  growth 
most  vigorous,  the  limbs  smooth  as  if  recently  washed  with  lye,  foliage 
fresh,  full  and  green. 

On  inquiry  I  learned  that  it  had  only  ordinary  treatment,  the  limbs 
had  not  been  washed,  and  its  vigorous  growth  was  attributed  to  the  sys- 
tem of  trenching  and  irrigating  that  increased  the  yield  of  strawberry 
plants  and  the  size  of  fruit,  the  effect  being  visible  in  growth  of  all 
kinds." 

There  is  no  better  place  than  right  here  to  say  that  the  change  in  the 
soil,  noted  by  Mr.  Hoffman,  change  in  color,  richness,  texture,  and  all, 
was  not  the  result  of  working  it  over,  or  of  manures  applied.  Since  the 
date  of  his  visit,  the  trenches  have  been  extended  over  lands  where  they 
have  not  had  this  thorough  working,  and  no  top  dressings  of  manure  have 
been  applied,  and  yet  these  same  changes  have  appeared  in  the  soil,  and 
the  same  results  to  vegetation. 

Letter  from  the  late  Hon.  John  Swinburne,  ex-Member  of  Con- 
gress, Mayor  of  Albany,  and  at  one  time  Health  Officer  of  the  Port  of 
New  York.  In  professional  life  he  stood  in  the  front  rank  of  American 
physicians  and  surgeons. 

"ALBANY,  May  ;th,  1885. 
HON.  A.  N.  COLE  : 

Dear  Sir : — After  quite  thorough  examination  and  consideration  of 
your  invention,  or  system,  styled  by  you  'The  New  Agriculture,'  I 
have  become  deeply  interested  in  the  matter,  and  beg  leave  by  letter  to 
express  to  you  the  impressions  I  have  formed  in  reference  to  it. 


7  6  DRAINAGE  AND  IRRIGATION. 

Careful  thought  about  the  system  impels  me  to  the  conclusion  that 
as  a  plan  for  the  storage  and  preservation  of  waters  for  irrigation,  and 
purposes  of  general  use,  it  demands  and  merits  far  more  attention  at  the 
hands  of  farmers,  gardeners,  and  the  public  generally  than  has  as  yet 
been  given  to  it. 

In  a  country  like  ours — in  the  eastern,  southern,  and  central  por- 
tions fast  filling  up  with  large  cities,  and  villages,  and  thickly  populated 
neighborhoods — the  question  of  the  most  available  means  of  obtaining  a 
proper  and  sufficient  supply  of  water  for  mechanical,  manufacturing,  and 
household  purposes,  and  for  protection  against  fires,  is  calling  to  its 
consideration  the  earnest  attention  and  careful  study  of  many  of  our 
ablest  scientists  and  most  practical  thinkers ;  while  to  agriculturists, 
manufacturers,  and  mill  owners  generally,  in  these  sections,  the  very 
perceptible  decrease  in  the  volume  of  our  rivers,  creeks,  and  other  irri- 
gating streams  upon  the  sufficiency  of  the  supply  of  water  from  which 
they  have  been  compelled  heretofore  (some  in  part  and  others  wholly), 
to  depend  for  success  in  their  various  avocations,  has  been  to  many  of 
them  the  cause  of  great  diminution  of  business,  and  business  profits, 
and  to  others  a  subject  of  deepest  anxiety. 

The  reduction  of  our  forests,  it  is  said  (and  very  properly,  too),  has 
resulted  in  a  consequent  reduction  of  our  rivers  and  streams,  which 
were  once  freely  navigable  from  their  mouths  nearly  to  their  sources, 
until  they  are  now  only  kept  open  for  commerce,  in  many  parts,  by  the 
application  of  great  labor  and  large  expenditures  of  money  almost 
continually.  As  have  failed  these  large  streams,  so  have  their  smaller 
tributaries  (from  which  they  all,  in  fact,  derive  their  supplies),  become 
less  in  volume,  until  at  length  farms  which  were  once  properly  and 
abundantly  watered,  are  now  comparatively  without  supply,  and  streams 
which  once  furnished  sufficient  water-power  for  the  running  of  mills  and 
factories,  now  scarcely  afford  power  sufficient  to  propel  the  churns  of 
farmers,  occupying  their  banks.  The  depreciation  in  the  value  of  lands 
in  many  parts  of  the  country  for  agricultural  purposes,  and  the  supply  of 
crops  therefrom  and  from  the  same  cause,  has  become  equally  percepti- 
ble. Yet,  the  supply  of  water  from  the  clouds,  from  rains  and  snows, 
has  not,  so  far  as  we  know,  in  any  way  decreased  ;  but  the  forests  are 
not  here  to  husband  them,  and  these  waters  are  permitted  to  soak  into 
the  ground,  or  run  to  waste  from  the  surface  almost  as  soon  as  they 
strike  the  earth. 


A  NEW  SYSTEM  OF  AGRICULTURE.  77 

The  problem  heretofore  has  been  how  best  to  secure  and  husband 
these  supplies  by  artificial  means,  so  as  to  most  effectually  preserve  them 
for  the  vast  demands  of  our  wonderfully  increasing  population,  for 
family  and  business  purposes,  and  especially  so  as  to  make  them  more 
useful  in  the  cultivation  of  the  soil. 

Many  able  and  ingenious  thinking  men  have  for  a  long  time  given 
this  question  their  attention  ;  and  many  plans  have  been  suggested — 
some  of  greater  and  some  of  less  merit,  but  all  accompanied  with  an 
apparent  intricacy  of  detail,  and  weight  of  expense  in  their  application, 
which  has  prevented  the  general  or  considerable  adoption  of  either. 

But  you,  Mr.  Cole,  seemed  at  last  to  have  discovered  a  scheme, 
plain  and  practical  in  itself,  and  evidently  of  but  moderate  expense  in  its 
adoption  to  the  uses  and  necessities  of  a  very  large  proportion  of  the 
people  who  are  now  suffering  severely  from  the  evils  to  which  I  have 
above  called  attention.  You  style  your  system  l  The  New  Agriculture,' 
and  from  its  probable  effect  upon  agricultural  districts  in  which  it  may 
be  hereafter  adopted,  as  indicated  by  the  experiments  you  have  already 
made,  the  name  would  not  seem  to  be  in  any  way  misapplied.  If  the 
result  of  its  use  in  general  should  be  an  increase  in  crops  and  vegetation, 
to  but  half  the  extent  foreshadowed  or  promised  by  those  experiments 
(and  I  can  see  no  sufficient  reason  why  your  claims  in  this  respect  may 
not  be  fully  verified  by  practical  application  of  your  plan),  you  have  de- 
veloped and  now  offered  to  the  country  and  the  race  a  new  system  for 
husbanding  the  falling  waters,  and  a  new  plan  for  their  use  which  will  not 
only  establish  a  new  era  in  agriculture,  but  which  may  be  so  used  as  to 
afford  the  needed  supply  of  good,  healthful,  and  pure  water  for  the 
other  ordinary  uses  of  life  to  very  many  sections  of  the  earth,  where  the 
inhabitants  are  now  suffering  disadvantages,  and  privations  from  its 
want. 

Your  plan  of  invention  is  exceedingly  simple  in  detail,  and  the 
greatest  wonder  to  any  one  who  shall  see  or  read  of  it  will  be  that  it  had 
not  been  thought  of,  developed,  and  adopted  long  before.  It  bears  the 
impress  of  reason  and  sound  sense  upon  its  first  presentation  to  the  mind, 
and  more  mature  reflection  upon  its  merits  only  results  in  more  strongly 
developing  these  characteristics  in  it.  The  scientist  and  the  plow-boy 
alike  can  each,  with  equal  promptness  and  facility,  perceive  its  scheme 
and  merits  at  a  glance;  and  the  person  who  proposes  to  use  it  on  his  farm 
or  garden,  or  in  connection  with  his  shop,  dwelling-house,  mill,  or  factory 


78  DRAINAGE  AND  IRRIGATION. 

will  not  require  the  assistance  of  the  scientific  and  mathematical  know- 
ledge of  the  civil  engineer  or  architect  to  enable  him  to  put  it  in  successful 
operation,  the  brains  of  an  astute  accountant  to  estimate  its  cost,  or  the 
eye  or  mind  of  the  learned  student  of  nature  to  discover  its  results.  Com- 
bining in  itself  a  plan  for  the  accomplishment  of  these  objects  highly  es- 
sential to  the  comfoit,  convenience,  and  business  interests  of  the  people — 
storage  of  water,  irrigation,  and  drainage — it  will  be  seen  at  once,  by  even 
the  ordinary  mind,  upon  the  most  casual  inspection,  to  be  practicable  and 
feasible  for  either  purpose  ;  and  it  must  be  equally  evident  that  great  ad- 
vantages must  accrue  to  the  user  of  the  system,  either  for  agricultural 
purposes,  the  storage  of  water  for  other  general  uses,  or  as  a  means  of 
drainage  simply. 

Scarcely  a  township  exists  in  our  country  in  which  there  are  not 
many  farms  upon  which  your  admirable  system  could  be  applied  to  great 
advantage  and  profit.  Large  portions  of  territory  in  agricultural  districts 
are  now  entirely  useless,  or  at  least  comparatively  unproductive,  by  reason 
of  insufficient  irrigation,  and  these,  through  the  appliance  of  your  '  New 
Agriculture,'  could  be  made  vastly  more  productive ;  while  the  present 
productive  portions  would  be  increased  in  productive  power  through  the 
same  instrumentality.  To  the  grape  and  other  fruit  growers  it  seems  to 
me  it  affords  especial  inducement  for  use,  which  will  speedily  bring  it 
into  imperative  demand  with  the  large  majority  of  this  important  business 
class.  Through  it  thousands  of  agriculturists,  in  every  State,  may  easily, 
and  with  little  expense,  make  their  barren  wastes  to  smile  with  produc- 
tiveness, and  the  better  portions  of  their  farms  to  double  in  value  by 
reason  of  increase  in  crops. 

But  the  advantages  from  the  use  of  your  plan  in  storage  of  water  for 
other  than  agricultural  purposes  are  equally  apparent,  and  must  eventu- 
ally bring  it  into  active  demand  and  use  in  localities  where  the  supply  of 
water  is  now  insufficient  for  the  requirements  of  cities  and  villages  ;  and 
by  its  application  many  such  corporations  will  be  enabled  to  furnish  their 
citizens  with  good,  cool,  and  pure  water  in  sufficient  quantities,  and  at  far 
less  expense  than  they  can  by  any  other  plan  or  system  now  known.  Of 
course,  whether  it  can  be  so  utilized  as  to  furnish  very  large  cities  with 
sufficient  supply  is  a  problem  hereafter  to  be  demonstrated ;  but  in  our 
own  State  (and  without  doubt  in  every  other  State)  there  are  hundreds 
of  small  cities  and  thickly  populated  villages  and  hamlets,  whose  inhabi- 
tants are  now  suffering  great  inconvenience,  and  incurring  risks  of  sick- 


A  NEW  SYSTEM  OF  AGRICULTURE.  79 

ness  and  death  from  malarial  and  epidemic  diseases  from  insufficient 
supplies  of  healthful  and  pure  water,  whose  surroundings  are  such  that, 
by  the  reasonable  application  of  your  simple  system  for  collection  and 
storage  of  water,  they  could  each,  at  much  less  cost  than  in  any  other 
way,  be  furnished  with  a  permanent  and  sufficient  quantity  of  the  best  of 
water  for  all  the  purposes  for  which  it  may  be  required  by  them.  Then, 
too,  the  hills  or  mountains  surrounding  or  adjoining  these  places,  often 
now  utterly  unproductive,  and  sometimes  even  unsightly  in  appearance, 
can,  by  this  same  plan,  be  transformed  into  productive  and  ornate  terraced 
gardens,  far  excelling  in  products  and  profit  the  ordinary  agricultural 
lands  of  the  neighborhood,  and  rivaling  in  beauty  the  most  famous  of  the 
ornamental  gardens  of  the  old  world,  presenting  at  all  times  a  'thing  of 
beauty*  to  the  eye,  season  by  season,  affording  more  profitable  remuner- 
ation to  their  owners  from  the  crops,  and  fruits,  and  vegetables  which  shall 
spring  from  and  adorn  their  slopes ;  and  at  the  same  time  and  always 
affording  to  the  inhabitants  of  the  populous  places  beneath  their  shades 
a  bountiful  supply  of  Heaven's  best  and  only  beverage  for  man. 

I  am  confident  that  your  system  will  grow  in  popularity  with  its 
use  ;  and  eventually  a  grateful  people,  thankful  for  the  blessings  your  in- 
vention has  brought  to  their  hands,  will  rank  you  as  a  benefactor  of  the 
human  race,  who  has  not  only  succeeded  in  making  two  blades  of  grass 
grow  where  one  was  wont  to  appear ;  but  who  has  also  taught  them  by 
simple  method,  and  at  cheapest  cost,  the  way  to  secure  for  themselves  a 
sufficiency  of  one  of  the  most  important  of  God's  gifts  to  man,  and  beast, 
and  nature. 

This  letter  requires  no  answer ;  it  is  written  in  testifying  appreci- 
ation of  the  merits  of  the  invention  of  an  old  friend,  and  he  is  at  liberty 
to  use  it  as  he  may  deem  proper. 

With  sentiments  of  respect,  I  am,  as  ever,  yours  truly, 

JOHN  SWINBURNE." 

Mr.  Cole's  present  residence  was  built  by  Mr.  Wm.  Pooler  still  a 
resident  of  Wellsville,  and  the  farm,  which  contains  about  50  acres,  was 
owned  by  him.  Visiting  the  place  and  noting  the  change  in  soil  and  pro- 
duction since  Mr.  Cole  perfected  his  system,  he  sent  the  following  com- 
munication : 

"  I  think  it  was  about  1850  that  I  purchased  the  place  on  which  you 
now  live.  The  hillside  had  been  cleared  for  several  years,  being  one  of 


8o  DRAINAGE  AND  IRRIGATION. 

the  earliest  lots  improved  in  what  is  now  Wellsville,  then  the  town  of 
Scio.  There  was  an  old  orchard  on  the  place,  and  also  a  tree,  which  I 
shall  never  forget.  It  was  not  in  the  orchard,  but  stood  by  itself,  a  little 
to  the  north-west  of  the  house  and  was  a  Roxbury  russet ;  no  more  worth- 
less fruit  could  have  been  anywhere  found.  Yesterday,  September  22, 
1885,  I  plucked  from  this  tree  two  apples;  one,  the  smallest  I  could  find, 
the  other  of  average  size  of  those  of  which  the  tree  was  so  loaded  as  to 
bow  its  branches  to  the  ground  upon  which  the  lower  limbs  rested.  I 
should  judge  there  were  twenty-five  bushels  of  apples  on  this  tree,  two- 
thirds  grown.  These  apples,  on  the  first  of  October  in  the  years  i8'53, 
1854,  and  1855  did  not  average  larger  than  crab  apples  at  that  time  of 
year.  They  were  not  so  large  at  harvesting  as  the  small  one  I  picked 
yesterday,  nor  were  they  quarter  as  large  as  most  of  the  apples  on  the 
tree  at  this  time.  The  tree  was  then  about  ten  years  old,  and  was  cov- 
ered with  moss,  and  in  all  respects  of  no  value,  and  I  threatened,  at  the 
time,  to  cut  it  down  as  a  cumberer  of  the  ground.  I  should  guess  that 
the  tree  might  possibly  have  borne  two  bushels  of  apples  in  a  bearing 
year,  and  we  did  not  pretend  to  gather  them. 

The  apples  now  on  the  tree  are  large,  fine,  and  fair;  in  fact,  they 
are  the  finest  russets  I  ever  saw. 

You  showed  me  early  rose  potatoes,  grown  this  year,  the  like  of 
which  I  never  saw  anywhere.  Some  of  these  weighed  from  a  pound  to  a 
pound  and  a,  half  apiece,  and  I  should  think  one  would  weigh  two  pounds. 
You  assured  me  that  you  had  grown  them  at  the  rate  of  over  one  thou- 
sand bushels  to  the  acre  the  present  season,  and  I  have  no  reason  to 
doubt  it.  As  there  is  no  fungus  on  your  grounds  there  is  no  rot.  The 
tomatoes,  all  over  the  town,  are  rotting,  but  I  did  not  observe  any  rotten 
ones  on  your  place,  and  I  certainly  never  saw  such  splendid  fruit,  nor  any- 
thing like  as  many  to  the  plant. 

I  gave  you  an  account  of  my  experiment  with  two  acres  of  pota- 
toes in  1854,  and  here  repeat  it.  The  plot  in  which  I  planted  is  a  por- 
tion of  the  ground  now  embraced  in  your  garden,  on  which  this  year  has 
been  grown  such  crops  as  I  never  set  eyes  on  before.  I  fitted  these  two 
acres  with  greater  care  and  painstaking  than  any  equal  amount  of  ground 
in  my  life,  mixing  a  portion  of  the  subsoil  with  the  surface,  and  covered 
it  deep  with  well-rotted  barnyard  manure,  making  it  very  rich.  A  care- 
ful man  and  a  good  farmer  planted  the  two  acres  to  potatoes  on  halves, 
and  I  realized  just  thirty  bushels  for  my  half.  This  completely  discour- 


A  NEW  SYSTEM  OF  AGRICULTURE.  81 

aged  me,  and  though  there  was  no  better  house  in  Wellsville  than  the  one 
I  had  built  upon  the  place,  and  the  barn  was  nearly  new,  I  gave  up,  and 
sold  the  property  for  what  I  could  get.  You  told  me  yesterday  that  you 
valued  your  two  acres  completed  at  $5.000  an  acre,  and  that  it  was  pay- 
ing well  at  that.  As  $5,000,  at  6  per  cent,  interest,  only  gives  $300,  I 
do  not  wonder;  since  I  am  sure  you  are  getting  two  or  three  times  that 
from  an  acre.  I  have  seen  these  strawberries  and  other  fruits  and  vege- 
tables as  sold  in  this  market  for  the  last  three  or  four  years,  and  have 
eaten  of  the  fruit,  and  have  never  seen  anything  anywhere  near  as  large, 
beautiful,  and  fine  flavored. 

You  yesterday  showed  me  pods  of  peas,  and  I  carried  home  speci- 
mens with  eight  peas  in  a  pod,  of  such  marvelous  size  as  to  astonish  me. 
The  peas  were  of  the  dwarf  variety,  as  shown  by  the  vines,  and  yet  they 
were  as  large  as  Delaware  grapes.  You  assured  me  you  grew  five  hun- 
dred bushels  of  pods  to  the  acre  of  these  peas,  and  I  believe  you,  since 
your  Champion  of  England,  on  vines  higher  than  any  man's  head,  loaded 
with  pods,  and  still  covered  with  blossoms,  presented  such  a  sight  as  I 
never  saw  before.  Your  squashes,  beets,  cabbage,  and  cauliflower  were 
all  very  fine ;  and  as  for  squashes,  I  never  saw  anything  in  my  life  so 
astonishing.  Though  quinces  are  rarely  grown  in  Allegany  County,  1 
saw  as  fine  ones  as  I  ever  came  across  anywhere. 

Nothing  so  much  surprised  me  as  the  change  wrought  in  the  soil. 
The  cold  clay  and  hardpan  had  been  turned  into  a  soil,  deep,  soft,  and 
very  rich,  growing  all  forms  of  plants,  bushes,  and  trees  to  perfection. 
You  say  your  system  wipes  out  the  hardpan,  and  it  certainly  does. 

This  latter  feature  of  your  plan  surprises  me  more  than  any  other, 
but  perhaps  I  should  except  from  this  your  spring  brook,  and  that  stream 
of  pure  cold  water  flowing  out  from  the  pipe  in  the  rear  of  the  house, 
there  being  no  springs  on  this  part  of  the  place.  Nobody  can  look  down 
into  your  trenches  when  open,  and  see  the  long  stretches  of  spring  water 
in  them  as  I  did,  and  not  discover  that  you  save  all  the  water  which  falls 
upon  the  hillside,  using  what  is  needed  for  the  growing  crop,  and  the 
remainder,  by  far  the  greater  portion,  running  off  in  purity.  Though  be- 
fore my  visit  of  yesterday  I  was  convinced  your  system  was  a  success,  I 
left  your  place  prepared  to  say  what  I  now  do. 

Your  discovery  has  no  equal,  nor  do  I  believe  anything  will  here- 
after be  discovered  so  important  to  health  and  prosperity  of  the  people. 

WILLIAM  POOLER." 


82  DRAINAGE  AND  IRRIGATION. 

In  a  letter  bearing  date,  March  28th,  1885,  addressed  to  Mr.  Cole, 
the  Hon.  C.  R.  Early,  one  of  the  most  celebrated  among  physicians  of 
the  Keystone  State,  and  none  more  eminent  to  be  found  anywhere  in 
knowledge  of  causes  and  effects  of  fungoid  infections,  the  Doctor,  among 
other  things,  says : 

"You  may  remember,  in  the  last  of  June,  1883,  while  I  was  in 
Wellsville,  I  was  invited  to  dine  at  your  '  Home  on  the  Hillside,'  in 
company  with  several  other  parties  interested  in  developing  the  oil.  gas, 
and  timber  resources  of  Northern  Pennsylvania,  and  Western  New  York. 

At  your  table  we  were  much  astonished  to  see  the  most  delicious 
fresh  peas,  just  picked  from  the  vines,  and  the  finest  strawberries  that  all 
acknowledged  ever  having  seen.  The  question  was  asked : 

'Where  do  you  get  such  fine  peas?'  Your  answer  was :  'They 
were  picked  from  my  own  garden.' 

'  Where  do  you  get  such  berries  ?' 

'  They  are  also  picked  from  my  own  garden.' 

'Come,  now,  Mr.  Cole,  that  will  never  do.  I  was  raised  in  Alle- 
gany  County.  This  is  too  early  in  the  season  for  either  peas  or  straw- 
berries. Besides,  Allegany  never  produced  such  peas  and  berries  as 
these.' 

Your  reply  was,  that  this  was  the  fruit  of  your  system  of  under- 
ground irrigation.  You  then  explained  to  us  your  system  of  sinking 
troughs  in  the  ground,  and  taking  up  the  water  as  it  fell,  and  holding  it 
back  to  supply  moisture  to  vegetation  as  it  was  required.  This  was  en- 
tirely a  new  feature  to  us  all ;  and,  after  dinner,  we  repaired  to  your 
garden,  a  lot  on  the  hillside,  where  you  explained  to  us  your  system  in 
detail.  The  more  I  examined  the  more  I  was  astonished  to  find  every 
bush,  twig,  stalk,  tree,  and  fruit  perfectly  clean  and  healthy.  No  rust  or 
fungi  of  any  kind  whatever  was  to  be  found.  You  showed  us  a  stream 
of  water  coming  from  the  trenches,  a  continuous,  bright,  and  sparkling 
brook,  and  yet  it  was  a  dry  time ;  quite  a  drouth.  But  in  spite  of  all 
this,  we  found  a  stream  of  water  coming  from  your  hillside  constantly, 
with  no  spring  to  feed  it — only  coming  from  the  stored-up  rains  and  dews 
that  fell,  caught  up  and  garnered  by  these  troughs,  furnishing  a  constant 
vapor  to  the  roots  of  your  vegetables  and  plants,  keeping  them  in  uniform 
condition  of  moisture  ;  never  too  wet,  never  too  dry.  This  system  made 
a  very  deep  impression  upon  me,  and  upon  returning  home  and  thinking 
the  matter  over,  you  will  remember  I  wrote  you  a  letter,  suggesting  that 


A  NEW  SYSTEM  OF  AGRICULTURE.  83 

by  the  use  of  natural  gas  (which  must  take  the  place  of  coal  and  wood 
for  heating  purposes)  to  heat  the  water  in  the  Fall  and  Spring,  and 
running  steam  pipes  through  the  troughs  (or  dropping  the  warm  water 
into  them;  to  keep  the  water  warm,  you  might  raise  all  kinds  of  produce, 
and,  as  it  were,  do  away  with  Winter.  You  could  do,  as  I  found  while 
in  Europe  was  done  there — produce  the  finest  pineapples  by  use  of  this 
warm-water  system,  thus  doing  away  with  expensive  hot-houses.  In  this 
letter  I  also  suggested,  that,  where  you  wished  to  raise  tropical  fruits, 
you  could  throw  a  canvass  over  the  space  to  keep  off  the  winds  and 
snows.  All  this  was  in  the  most  part  a  joke,  as  applied  to  Allegany, 
but  upon  receiving  your  reply,  I  was  astounded  to  read  that  you  had  al- 
ready obtained  a  patent  covering  these  points. 

On  the  second  day  of  July  last,  I  was  again  in  Wellsville.  In  pass- 
ing through  the  streets  I  noticed  on  the  corner  baskets  of  strawberries ; 
some  were  small,  diseased-looking  berries,  but  alongside  of  them  were 
luscious  ones,  nearly  as  large  as  peaches.  Said  I : 

'  Ho&  much  are  your  strawberries  ?' 

*  These    are    sold    at    thirteen    cents,    and    these    at    twenty-five   a 
quart,'  was  the  answer  made  by  the  vender. 

'  But  why  should  there  be  such  a  difference  in  price  ? '  I  inquired. 
'  Why!  these  are  Cole's  berries.' 
.  '  Cole's  berries  !     What  do  you  mean  by  Cole's  berries  ?' 

*  Why !  they  are  raised  here  in  town  by  Mr.  Cole.' 
k  Who  is  Mr.  Cole  ?  ' 

1  What !  don't  you  know  A.  N.  Cole  ?  ' 

'  Oh !  yes ;  he  has  been  termed  the  father  of  the  Republican 
party.  So  he  raised  these  berries  here  in  town  ?  Well.  I  do  know  A. 
N.  Cole,  and  I  think  he  has  succeeded  in  raising  better  strawberries 
than  children,  for  let  me  tell  you  that  his  Republican  children  have  given 
us  Democrats  a  mighty  sight  of  trouble.' 

'  Yes,  sir;  that  is  so.  He  generally  succeeds  with  anything  he 
undertakes.' 

'  How  many  of  those  berries  does  it  take  to  make  a  quart  ?  ' 

*  About   twenty    to   thirty ;    I    suppose  an   average    of   twenty-five 
would  cover  it.' 

1  Why  !     You  had  better  sell  them  for  a  cent  apiece.' 
'  Well,  they  sell  at  that  as  fast  as  lightning.     They  don't  stay  on 
hand  long.' 


84  DRAINAGE  AND  IRRIGATION. 

Of  course  I  knew  whose  berries  they  were  as  soon  as  I  saw  them. 
It  was  only  a  whim  of  mine  to  interview  the  groceryman. 

The  next  day  a  party  of  us  were  visiting  your  grounds,  and  you 
may  well  remember  the  liberties  taken  by  me  at  that  time.  I  then  had 
with  me  a  powerful  glass,  and  I  was  determined  to  investigate  matters 
thoroughly.  I  examined  the  roots,  leaves,  stalks,  and  berries  of  your 
strawberry  vines.  I  dissected  and  investigated  them  in  every  imaginable 
way,  as  also  the  pea  vines,  cauliflowers,  cabbages,  and  in  fact  all  vege- 
tables and  vegetation  within  your  grounds,  and,  as  I  told  you  at  that 
time,  I  did  not  find  a  single  exception  wherein  a  plant  was  not  perfectly 
clean  and  healthy. 

No  fungi  to  be  found  anywhere.  Root,  stalk,  leaf,  twig,  and  fruit, 
all  in  perfect  health,  and  absolutely  free  from  fungus  or  parasites.  Straw- 
berries larger  than  plums,  and  everything  in  like  proportion.  Even  the 
timothy  and  other  grasses  seemed  brighter,  fresher,  and  more  luxuriant. 

Of  course,  I  inquired  into  the  expense  per  acre  of  such  a  system, 
which  I  cannot  pretend  to  give  from  memory;  I  will  leave  that  to  you. 
But  allow  me  to  say  that  if  all  lands  were,  in  place  of  underdraining  and 
subsoiling,  treated  as  you  do  yours ;  deep  trenches,  broad  and  wide,  filled 
with  stones  and  covered  with  soil  as  yours  are ;  fertilized  with  a  compost 
as  you  prepare  it,  having  it  fully  assimilated  before  using — I  say,  if  all 
this  could  be  done,  then,  and  not  till  then,  can  we  do  away  with  this  crea- 
tion, cultivation,  and  dissemination  of  poisonous  fungi,  which,  as  has 
been  shown,  is  working  such  sad  disaster  and  death  to  the  whole  uni- 
versal and  vegetable  world." 


CHAPTER    XI. 


That  the  Department  of  Agriculture  among  Cabinet  positions  is 
to  be  found  most  important  of  any  in  the  future  of  our  government 
may  be  set  down  as  a  fact.  The  enactment  into  law  of  what  is  known  as 
"  The  Hatch  Experimental  Station  Bill,"  the  author  of  which  is  the  Hon. 
W.  H.  Hatch,  of  Hannibal,  Mo.,  dated  an  epoch  with  the  people  of  the 
United  States,  to  ultimate  in  such  an  education  of  the  industrial  classes 
as  to  place  America  in  the  front  rank  of  progress,  and  make  the  entire 
country  one  of  universal  prosperity  and  wealth.  At  this  point  I  would 
ask  the  Department  of  Agriculture  to  take  means  at  once  to  lay  before 
the  American  public  that  portion  of  a  report  on  irrigation  in  the  United 
States,  made  by  Mr.  Richard  J.  Hinton,  under  direction  of  Commissioner 
Coleman,  found  on  pages  150  to  154,  that  our  people  may  realize  the 
fact,  the  saving  and  use  of  the  waters  for  all  they  are  worth  is  to  become 
the  world's  future.  I  especially  ask  that  all  agriculturists  and  horticultur- 
ists may  note  the  conclusions  reached  by  Mr.  Marsh,  late  Minister  to 
Italy,  touching  the  duties  and  responsibilities  of  governments  in  taking 
charge  of  the  whole  matter  of  irrigation.  To  this  complexion  must  it 
come  at  last.  That  this  great  revolution  is  at  our  very  doors,  let  the  fol- 
lowing from  The  Field  and  Farm,  of  Denver,  Col.,  bear  evidence,  that 
the  policies  of  government  have  already  been  substantially  fixed  as  re- 
gards this  whole  matter : 

"  IRRIGATING  THE  PLAINS. 

Last  year  Congress  appropriated  $250,000  for  the  purpose  of  investigat- 
ing the  extent  to  which  the  '  and  regions '  of  the  West  can  be  redeemed 
by  irrigation.  It  is  proposed  to  dam  up  the  canons  of  the  Rocky  Moun- 
tains so  as  to  form  immense  reservoirs  of  water  from  the  melting  snows 
and  heavy  rainfalls  of  the  region,  to  be  used  for  the  irrigation  of  the  arid 
lands  west  of  the  looth  meredian,  embracing  an  area  of  150,000  square 
miles.  The  location  of  the  reservoirs,  and  the  selection  of  the  courses 
of  irrigating  canals  are  under  direction  of  the  originator  of  the  gigantic 
scheme,  Major  Powell,  of  the  geological  survey,  and  will  ultimately  cost 


86  DRAINAGE  AND  IRRIGATION. 

between  three  and  four  million  dollars,  while  the  construction  of  the 
works  must  entail  an  outlay  of  hundreds  of  millions  of  dollars  •  but,  in 
return,  it  is  estimated  that  the  full  realization  of  the  plan  will  reclaim  for 
profitable  agriculture  an  area  equal  to  four-fifths  of  the  present  cultivated 
land  in  the  United  States.  The  first  appropriation  was  made  chiefly  to 
obtain  more  data  for  determining  whether  the  scheme  was  so  feasible  as 
to  justify  further  expenditure.  Congress  has  now  virtually  committed  the 
country  to  the  execution  of  the  project  by  making  another  appropriation 
of  $250,000  for  continuing  the  survey.  The  governors  of  all  the  Terri- 
tories to  be  first  and  chiefly  benefited  by  the  project  speak  loudly  in  favor 
of  at  least  the  present  work,  and  urge  local  co-operation." 

In  view  of  the  fact  that  great  artificial  reservoirs  are  a  constant  men- 
ace, likely  to  give  way  at  any  time  with  disastrous  results,  we  ask  that  the 
merits  of  this  system  be  given  consideration  by  those  in  authority. 
Under  it  the  waters  of  the  mountain  streams  can  be  turned  into  under- 
ground storage,  and  carried  from  points  along  summits  to  slopes  and 
inclines,  foothills,  plains,  and  into  valleys,  until  moisture  shall  everywhere 
prevail,  and  the  arid  lands  become  a  water  preserve  down  to  the  bed 
rock.  That  such  a  system  would  be  automatic  and  at  all  times  operative, 
cannot  fail  to  be  discovered  by  the  most  casual  thinker.  Of  the  efficacy 
of  Mr.  Cole's  system  and  the  profits  realized,  it  is  only  necessary  to  com- 
pare them  with  the  system  of  intense  culture  applied  by  the  market 
gardeners  in  the  country  districts  around  Paris,  as  reported  by  Prince 
Krapotkine,  results  electrifying  the  world. 

He  asserts  that  there  is  not  a  country  in  the  world  that  begins  to 
contain  the  number  of  people  that  might  easily  be  supported  upon  its 
own  soil  without  importation  of  food  or  agricultural  supplies  of  any  kind 
from  foreign  countries  ;  that  where  there  has  been  an  assumed  pressure 
of  population,  as  in  England  and  Ireland,  the  causes  have  been,  not  that 
the  land  was  not  abundantly  able  to  procure  for  them  all,  and  more  than 
all,  that  was  needed  for  a  full  and  satisfactory  support  of  existence,  but 
because  in  these  countries  the  land  laws  and  the  monopoly  of  land  by 
private  ownership  have  been  such  that  the  people  have  not  been  able  to 
utilize  its  resources  as  they  should,  and,  under  other  circumstances, 
probably  would. 

As  an  illustration  of  the  productive  capacity  of  the  earth  under 
proper  treatment,  he  gives  a  number  of  instances  borrowed  from  the  ex- 
perience of  the  market  gardeners  in  the  country  districts  around  Paris, 


A  NEW  SYSTEM  OF  AGRICULTURE.  87 

where  the  soil,  even  in  the  hands  of  relatively  ignorant  men,  has  been 
utilized  so  as  to  be  enormously  productive.  He  refers  to  one  farm  of 
2.7  acres  in  extent,  from  which  there  are  annually  4ak  en  125  tons  of 
market  vegetables  of  all  kinds.  The  farmer  in  this  case — and  he  is  but 
a  sample  of  his  class — has  found  out  a  part  of  the  secrets  of  nature,  and 
by  the  building  of  walls  to  protect  his  lands  from  the  cold  winds,  by 
whitening  these  so  as  to  secure  all  possible  radiated  heat,  and  by  a  con- 
stant and  judicious  use  of  fertilizers,  has  his  little  farm  constantly  in  a 
productive  condition  from  January  i  to  December  31.  He  has,  in  effect, 
by  simple  and  inexpensive  means,  produced  a  result  equivalent  to  what 
would  have  been  obtained  if  the  farm  had  been  located  in  the  open  air. 
a  number  of  degrees  to  the  south  of  Paris. 

He  and  other  market  gardeners  around  Paris  make  their  soil,  and 
have  each  year  quite  a  quantity  to  sell ;  for,  if  this  disposition  was  not 
made,  in  consequence  of  the  amount  of  fertilizer  used,  their  farms  would 
gradually  be  lifted  up  above  the  level  of  the  surrounding  ground.  Prince 
Krapotkine  says  it  does  not  in  the  least  matter  what  the  soil  is  from 
which  they  originally  start;  for  a  French  market  gardener  would  in  two 
years'  time  raise  an  abundance  of  vegetable  products  from  an  asphalt 
pavement  as  a  foundation.  Soil,  either  made  up  of  loam  or  fertilizers, 
is  a  chemical  product,  and  not  the  least  difficulty  will  be  experienced, 
when  the  laws  of  chemistry  are  better  understood,  in  manufacturing  all 
of  the  material  needed  for  plant  life. 

In  his  opinion  the  ordinary  French  market  gardeners  are  but  be- 
ginning in  the  business,  for  they  devote  a  great  deal  of  unnecessary  time 
and  labor  to  work  which  could  be  much  more  easily  performed  by  me- 
chanical processes.  The  way  in  which  this  could  be  brought  about  is 
shown  in  the  experience  of  one  French  market  gardener,  who  has  cov- 
ered over  a  half-acre  tract  of  ground  with  a  glass  roof,  and  has  run  steam 
pipes,  supplied  by  a  small  steam  boiler,  at  intervals  under  the  ground 
sheltered  by  this  covering.  The  result  has  been  that  he  has  been  able 
for  ten  months  out  of  every  year  to  cut  each  day  from  this  little  tract  of 
ground  from  1,000  to  1,200  large  bunches  of  asparagus,  an  amount  of 
product  which,  under  ordinary  conditions,  would  require  not  less  than 
sixty  acres  of  land  ;  that  is,  by  a  skillful  adaptation  of  means  to  ends,  the 
productive  capacity  of  a  given  tract  of  land  has  been  increased  more 
than  a  hundredfold.  Even  this  result,  great  as  it  is,  has  been  surpassed 
by  an  English  gardener,  whose  experiences  are  referred  to  in  the  last 


88  DRAINAGE  AND  IRRIGATION. 

number  of  the  Quarterly  Review,  who  has  entered  into  the  cultivation 
of  mushrooms,  and  has  been  able,  in  consequence  of  the  skill  he  has 
shown  in  this  work,  to  net  an  annual  profit  from  a  little  farm  of  one 
acre  in  extent  of  more  than  $5,000.  That  the  market  gardens  around 
Paris  are  profitable  may  be  judged  by  the  fact  that  the  average  rental 
charged  for  these  is  $150  per  acre. 

Prince  Krapotkine  maintains  that,  even  at  the  present  time,  with 
their  only  partially  instructive  methods,  the  French  gardeners  could 
easily  raise  enough,  both  in  animals  and  vegetables,  to  supply  all  that 
was  needed  for  the  sustenance  and  protection  of  life  at  the  rate  of  1,000 
human  beings  to  the  square  mile;  or,  in  other  words,  under  a  method  of 
intense  and  properly  directed  culture,  it  will  be  easy  for  the  State  of 
Massachusetts  to  sustain  within  her  own  borders  a  population  of  not  less 
than  9,000,000  human  beings,  and  this,  be  it  remembered,  is  but  the  be- 
ginning,  for  no  one  yet  knows  the  limit  to  be  set  upon  the  productive 
capacity  of  the  soil. 

To  create  soils,  infuse,  and  continue  within  them  elements  of  fer- 
tility, as  is  done  and  being  done  by  these  French  market  gardeners, 
would  call  for  an  outlay  in  the  complete  regeneration  of  France  alone  of 
greater  amount  than  it  would  to  cover  the  watersheds  of  the  world  under 
Mr.  Cole's  system,  accomplishing  the  same  results,  and,  in  addition 
thereto,  saving  and  giving  for  use  to  man  and  crop  the  waters. 

Here  we  will  give  place  to  selections  from  a  letter  written  by  Mr. 
Cole  to  Mr.  Farrar,  of  the  Labor  Review,  and  by  him  published,  as  he, 
with  his  ready  pen,  tells  of  results  of  the  system  which  will  follow  its  in- 
troduction— results  not  undetermined,  but  proven  by  Mr.  Cole  and  others 
who  have  adopted  it. 

\_From  the  Labor  Review^ 

"The  following  coming  to  our  table  from  Father  Cole,  of  the  Home 
on  the  Hillside,  will  need  no  extended  introduction.  If  there  is  now  liv- 
ing anywhere  a  man  appropriately  denominated  the  Father  of  the  Repub- 
lican party,  that  man  is  Asahel  Nicolas  Cole,  of  Wellsville.  For  years, 
this  bold,  brave,  fearless,  and  independent  Old  Man  of  the  Mountains, 
as  he  is  denominated,  has  made  no  concealment  of  the  fact  that  he  is  a 
labor  and  land  reformer,  and  in  sympathy  with  every  endeavor  of  the  in- 
dustrial classes  to  make  their  way  up  in  the  world.  This  man  has  been 
from  the  first  little  understood,  scarcely  understood  at  all,  in  fact ;  at 
times  declared  by  the  Democrats  a  Democrat  and  free  trader ;  again  by 


A  NEW  SYSTEM  OF  AGRICULTURE.  89 

labor  journals  a  labor  reform  man,  and  we  believe  also  that  the  Prohi- 
bitionists have  claimed  that  he  belonged  to  them.  We  have  known  in- 
timately the  man  since  so  widely  spoken  of  on  account  of  his  New  Agri- 
culture, sometimes  denominated  Aquaculture,  or  Sub-Irrigation,  for  many 
years.  But  we  have  said  enough.  Hear  Father  Cole  : 

'  WELLSVILLE,  N.  Y.,  July  21. — I  made  to  you  a  promise  somewhat  in 
pleasantry,  and,  having  done  so,  making  it  a  rule  never  to  make  good 
promises  and  not  keep  them,  and  having  made  bad  ones  not  to  carry  them 
out,  I  proceed  to  write.  I  did  not  say  what  I  declared  could  be  done  for 
thirty  dollars  an  acre,  but,  as  I  understand  your  soils,  I  conclude  those  on 
the  surface  are  naturally  rich  in  mould,  and  have  clay  subsoils,  and  will 
presume  such  is  the  case.  Again,  I  conclude  that  stones  are  abundant 
in  your  section,  a  matter  of  great  moment.  In  its  absence,  resort  to  tile 
is  a  necessity.  Even  in  countries  where  recourse  must  be  had  to  quarries, 
the  expense  of  fitting  lands  will  not  be  greatly  increased.  I  will  say,  there- 
fore, right  along,  that  in  lands  where  round  and  flat  stones  prevail,  these 
are  invaluable,  since,  once  fitted,  with  the  reservoirs  and  overflows  such  as 
I  am  about  to  describe,  there  will  be  little  work  for  you  and  your  children 
and  children's  children  for  thousands  of  years,  except  to  sow  your  grain, 
put  in  your  potatoes  and  corn,  harvest  your  crops  of  grain,  grasses,  fruit, 
etc.,  and  be  happy.  You  will  never  have  any  subsoiling  to  do,  and,  as 
for  plowing,  dragging,  and  working  your  land  generally,  inclusive  of  ma- 
nuring, the  rains  and  melting  snows  will  do  fully  nine-tenths  of  it,  and  the 
automatic  inmovement  of  the  waters  will  convince  you  within  three  years 
from  the  time  of  fitting  your  first  acre  that  there  was  a  little  more  of 
philosophy  in  the  heads  and  hands  of  your  New  England  ancestors,  with 
their  stone  in  one  end  of  the  bag  and  the  grist  in  the  other,  than  in  those 
of  their  sons  still  holding  on  in  the  ways  of  farming  such  as  have  pre- 
vailed the  world  over  outside  of  the  semi-barborous  countries  where  folks 
like  the  Japs,  the  Heathen  Chinee,  and  some  others  have  crudely  done 
for  thousands  of  years  what  I  am  doing  on  my  hillside.' 

(Here  follows  description  of  manner  of  construction  not  necessary 
to  repeat.) 

'  You  will  now,  I  feel  sure,  understand  me  when  I  say  the  cost  of  agri- 
cultural or  ordinary  farm  lands  is  placed  at  $30  per  acre,  and  most  per- 
fectly fitted  garden  lands  at  $300  per  acre.  My  most  perfect  lands,  a 
hopeless  clay  and  clod,  filled  with  stone  (more  stone  than  soil  when  I  be- 
gan), are  a  perfect  tilth  or  sponge,  made  so  by  the  fork  to  begin  with,  and 


90  DRAINAGE  AND  IRRIGATION. 

rendered  absolutely  perfect  by  movement  of  the  water  through  them  for 
live  years,  animalcule  left  dead  in  track  of  the  waters,  and  are  this  hour 
the  most  productive  soils  on  the  face  of  the  earth.  On  these  I  am  grow- 
ing cauliflower  from  the  embryo  of  the  size  of  a  walnut  to  thirty  inches 
in  circumference  in  from  seven  to  ten  days,  rapidity  of  growth  depending 
on  atmospheric  conditions  •  the  more  hot  and  dry  the  weather  the  more 
rapid  will  the  roots  make  for  the  water  beneath.  It  is  this  that  gives  me 
a  cauliflower,  full  grown,  in  a  fourth  of  the  time  from  appearance  of  em- 
bryo under  ordinary  conditions  of  growth. 

ASTONISHING  RESULTS. 

To  show  what  Mother  Earth  is  capable  of  doing  at  her  best,  has 
been  my  endeavor.  Thousands  of  people  have  been  here  to  see  my  work. 
When  asked  what  it  has  cost  my  answer  has  been  :  "  My  very  best  acre 
may  have  cost  four  or  five  hundred  dollars."  In  this  I  have  included  not 
merely  the  cost  of  fitting,  but  of  planting  to  fruit  and  all  else  connected 
with  the  work  for  the  first  three  years,  inclusive  of  caring  for  and  harvest- 
ing of  crops.  My  most  perfectly  fitted  lands  have  been  tests  simply,  and 
on  these  I  have  grown  early  rose  potatoes  at  the  rate  of  1,200  bushels 
per  acre ;  timothy  and  clover,  three  and  four  crops  annually  on  the  same 
test  meadow,  at  the  rate  of  three  and  a  half  tons  of  cured  hay,  aggregat- 
ing from  twelve  to  fourteen  tons  to  the  acre.  I  grow,  year  in  and  year 
out,  at  the  best,  strawberries  at  the  rate  of  from  four  to  five  hundred 
bushels  to  the  acre,  and  these  from  the  size  of  ordinary  ones  to  that  of 
peaches,  and  thence  on  up  in  some  instances  to  the  size  of  the  average 
greening  apple.  I  have  now  growing  on  my  place  Cuthbert  raspberries 
at  rate  of  not  less  than  six  hundred  bushels  to  the  acre.  My  raspberries 
and  blackberries  are  growing  upon  lands  costing  not  to  exceed  fifty  dol- 
lars an  acre  for  fitting.  I  use  no  phosphates,  nor  would  I  take  as  a  gift 
all  that  might  be  offered  me.  I  use  well-rotted  barn  manure,  but  where 
manures  are  deposited  in  open  trenches,  that  these  may  be  liquidated  by 
the  rains,  there  is  no  need  of  rotting.  The  animalculae  left  dead  in  soils 
is  my  chief  reliance  for  fertilizing.  The  value  of  waters  falling  upon 
lands  during  the  year  in  this  regard  is  far  greater  than  all  possible  manur- 
ing. In  passing  the  waters  through  the  clay  and  clod  from  trench  to 
trench,  as  I  am  doing,  the  effect  is,  to  aerate,  infiltrate,  and  render  them 
warm,  vital,  soft,  porous,  and  productive  to  the  depth  of  trenching.  And 
on  lands  where  only  three,  or  four,  or  five  inches  of  surface  of  product- 


A  NEW  SYSTEM  OF  AGRICULTURE.  91 

ive  soil  naturally  exists,  the  roots  of  plants  will,  within  three  years  after 
lands  are  trenched,  penetrate  to  depth  of  the  trenches.  Best  of  all,  the 
soluble  elements  of  the  clay  and  clod  are  released,  and  aluminum,  potas- 
sium, and  all  else  making  up  best  of  "  soup,  porridge,  or  broth,"  pabulum 
perfectly  prepared  for  absolute  perfection  of  plant  growth  follows. 

THE  POOREST  SOIL  WILL  Do. 

More  gradual  will  be  found  the  fertilizing  of  arid  and  sandy  lands, 
but  none  the  less  sure.  New  England,  were  her  stone  buried  in  her  soils 
as  I  am  doing,  would,  I  am  confident,  within  a  decade  be  producing 
more  of  value  than  now  grown  on  all  lands  under  cultivation  in  the- 
American  Union.  To  drop  the  waters  of  rains  and  melting  ices  and 
snows  into  trenches,  enabling  them  to  descend  to  the  bed  rock,  would  fill 
subsoils  with  water,  and,  diffusing  moisture  in  all  directions,  deserts 
would  disappear,  and  in  their  waste  places  would  grow  grasses  and  grains, 
fruits  and  flowers,  grand  trees,  deep  rooting  and  sending  up  great 
trunks  with  spreading  branches ;  and  along  mountain  sides  and  in  valleys, 
across  arid  plains  of  alkaline  deposits,  where  the  prickly  pear,  the  sage 
brush,  and  grease  wood  now  prevail  would  appear  the  higher  forms  of 
plant  life,  and  springs  everywhere  cropping  out,  brooks  would  be  grown, 
rivers  appear  in  valleys  where  none  now  are  found,  and  lakes  of  crystal 
water,  alive  with  brook  trout  and  other  of  the  best  varieties  of  fish 
would  be  found  in  dells  among  the  mountains,  and  from  these  the  waters 
can  be  dropped  from  mains  to  the  valleys,  and  by  use  of  the  water  mo- 
tor and  the  turbine  wheel  with  cable  attachments  the  world  can  be  set 
in  automatic  play  of  whiz  and  whirl,  moving  the  most  ponderous  of 
of  machinery,  and  setting  the  pick,  and  spade,  and  shovel  at  work, 
guided  by  the  hand  of  man,  the  forces  of  nature  made  to  do  the  work 
now  done  by  hand,  from  that  upon  the  Panama  Canal,  down  to  that  of  the 
housewife  with  her  churn,  the  farmer  with  his  threshing  machine,  the 
manufacturer  with  his  mighty  shaft  in  perpetual  motion,  and  the  lady 
with  her  sewing  machine,  driven  by  a  motor  hung  upon  the  wall  as  an 
ornament,  magically  moving  her  knitting  needles  in  automatic  and  end- 
less movements. 

ITS  SANITARY  ADVANTAGES. 

To  conform  soils  as  I  have  done  and  am  doing  would  produce  not 
only  all  of  these  results,  but  would  drain  all  swamps,  dry  up  all  fetid 
pools  and  morasses,  purify  all  waters,  render  healthful  and  vivifying  the 


c>2  DRAINAGE  AND  IRRIGATION. 

air,  make  an  end  of  stagnation,  living  germs,  microbes,  malarial  infec- 
tions of  air  and  water,  and,  making  an  end  correspondingly  of  prema- 
ture decay  and  untimely  death  •  so  would  the  harvest  be.  To  calculate 
the  effect  upon  the  climates  of  different  countries  is  a  something  in  the 
contemplation  of  which  the  mind  of  man  can  scarcely  embrace  in  its 
utmost  stretch  of  endeavor.  To  diffuse  moisture  through  all  of  the  earth's 
watersheds  from  pole  to  pole,  as  I  have  demonstrated,  is  as  easy  as  to 
sink  trenches  on  your  own  farm,  following  directions  herein  given,  and 
would  have  the  effect  to  everywhere  maintain  the  dew  point  in  soils, 
winter  and  summer  alike,  simoons,  siroccos,  cyclones  and  blizzards 
would  disappear,  and  the  winter  of  earth's  discontent  turn  to  glorious 
summer.'  " 

Reports  from  others  who  are  using  the  system  are  as  strongly  in  its 
favor  as  those  from  Mr.  Root  and  from  Florida.  We  have  not  the  space 
in  which  to  publish  some  we  would  like  to  give  our  readers,  containing 
as  they  do  information  of  value.  As  the  question  has  been  frequently 
asked  of  effect  on  orchards,  we  will  give  room  to  a  letter,  or  an  extract  from 
a  letter  from  Mr.  Cole,  and  a  report  made  by  a  gentleman  who  has  applied 
it  to  his  orchard.  Mr.  Cole  says  :  "  Before  the  war  I  visited  the  farm  of 
Mr.  Christopher  Grastorf,  an  intelligent  German  farmer  of  this  town.  On 
it  was  found  a  remarkably  thrifty  and  growing  young  orchard  of  four  acres. 
Immediately  above  the  orchard  is  a  rocky  cliff,  at  the  base  of  which 
issued  a  large  number  of  living  springs.  After  perfecting  my  system,  I 
suggested  to  my  friend  the  advisability  of  sinking  a  trench  below  the  cliff, 
and  throwing  the  water  in  even  diffusion  along  the  water-table,  insuring 
sub-irrigation  the  year  round.  No  disciple  could  have  been  of  readier 
agreement,  and  he  forthwith  followed  the  suggestion.  Results  were 
simply  incredible;  grass,  patatoes,  garden  vegetables,  etc.,  were  grown 
from  year  to  year  between  the  trees,  and  such  crops  have  never  been 
seen  within  my  knowledge,  outside  of  my  '  Home  on  the  Hillside.' 
This,  the  6th  day  of  June,  1889,  Mr.  Grastorf  brings  to  my  home 
specimens  of  the  northern  spy  apple  in  as  perfect  condition  as  were  any 
fruit  from  any  orchard  of  last  fall.  These  he  says  are  but  samples  of 
the  yield  of  this  orchard,  and  that  he  is  not  able  to  thus  preserve  apples 
grown  without  sub-irrigation." 

For  himself,  Mr.  Grastorf  says :  "  I  became  convinced  that  one 
acre  of  sub-irrigated  land  is  of  intrinsically  greater  value  than  ten  or 
twenty  under  old  methods  of  culture,  and  decided  to  remove  my  barns, 


A  NEW  SYSTEM  OF  AGRICULTURE. 


93 


at  an  expense  of  one  hundred  dollars,  that  the  liquids  from  the  barnyard 
might  enter  the  trenches.  This  I  did  with  best  and  astonishing  results. 
The  net  profits  from  my  four  acres  being  much  more  than  from  entire 
fifty  acres  outside,  and  had  I  the  means  I  would  sub-irrigate  my  whole 
farm." 

Office  of  Opera  House,     ~) 

S.  F.  Hanks,  Agent, 
WELLSVILLE,  N.  Y.,  July  ist,  1889.) 
A.  P.  COLE, 

Dear  Sir: — Your  father  requested  me  to  send  you  a  statement  of. 
my  trenching  for  water  in  my  garden  lot.  You  know  it  is  across  the 
street  from  yours,  not  directly  opposite,  but  northerly  therefrom.  On  the 
edge  of  the  upper  slope  I  dug  a  trench  five  feet  deep,  running  the 
length  of  the  lot  on  Highland  street.  It  was  made  to  descend  from  each 
end  towards  the  center;  at  the  center  I  laid  a  pipe,  /.  e.,  at  right  angles 
leading  down  the  hillside  to  my  lane.  This  pipe  was  also  buried  below 
the  frost  line.  I  put  a  goose-neck  pipe  at  its  terminus  at  the  lane,  and 
have  an  artificial  spring,  as  a  result,  of  the  purest  water.  I  prepared  the 
trench  by  filling  the  bottom  eight  inches  with  gravel  and  sand  for  the 
purpose  of  filtering  and  purifying  the  water. 

I  then  filled  the  trench  with  stone  picked  from  the  garden  to  within 
eighteen  inches  of  the  surface,  covered  these  small  stones  with  large  flat 
ones,  and  buried  the  entire  length  with  garden  soil.  I  cultivate  over  the 
entire  system  with  astonishing  results.  This  season  has  been  very  rainy, 
and  the  surplus  waterfall  on  my  lot  has  been  conducted  off  by  the 
underground  pipe,  leaving  the  surface  ground  under  tillage  light,  spongy, 
and  in  a  proper  condition  to  promote  rapid  growth  of  vegetation.  There 
is  a  large  stream  of  surplus  water  running  down  State  street  on  both 
sides,  one  from  your  father's,  which  is  utilized  by  some  German  families 

living  by  the  side  of  its  course.  Yours  truly, 

S.  F.  HANKS." 

Mr.  Richard  Jacobs,  of  Independence,  Allegany  County,  an  old 
veteran  of  the  late  war,  writes  that  he  has  secured  the  blessing  of  a 
flowing  fountain  of  pure  and  sweet  water  for  family  use,  and  that  at  a 
point  where  before  putting  in  the  system  there  was  no  water  supply. 

In  a  letter  of  recent  date,  Dr.  W.  M.  DeHart,  of  Stark,  Fla.,  writes : 
tl  We  are  suffering  from  the  effects  of  a  seven  weeks'  drouth.  Vegetation 


94  DRAINAGE  AND  IRRIGATION. 

is  burned  up.     On  my  trenched  land  Irish  and  sweet   potatoes  are  grow- 
ing strong,  green,  and  of  fine  color."     Dr.  DeHart  is  extending  his  work. 

Space  will  permit  of  no  more  reports. 

The  year  1889  will  pass  into  history  as  the  year  of  floods,  carrying- 
in  their  path  death  to  thousands,  and  destruction  to  property  and  crops 
too  large  to  enumerate. 

The  "Home  on  the  Hillside"  was  in  the  path  of  the  storm,  and 
stands  to-day  unmarked  and  without  damage  by  the  falling,  rushing 
waters,  while  on  all  sides  of  it  lands  were  gullied  and  washed,  crops 
destroyed,  and  other  damage  wrought.  Though  the  fall  of  water  was 
such  as  was  never  before  known  in  Western  New  York,  the  trenches  on 
Mr.  Cole's  land  took  up  the  waters,  holding  them  in  storage.  Had  the 
watersheds  of  the  floaded  districts  been  under  Mr.  Cole's  system,  the 
rainfall  would  have  been  taken  up  and  held  as  it  is  by  forest  districts, 
the  stored  waters  feeding  crop,  spring,  well,  brook,  and  river  in  long  and 
steady  flow.  Floods  can  be,  should  be,  rendered  things  of  the  past, 
while  our  springs  and  streams  are  restored  to  their  original  purity  and 
volume.  By  these  floods  millions  of  dollars  have  been  lost ;  other  mil- 
lions must  be  spent  to  repair  damages. 

A  fraction  of  these  sums  spent  by  government  or  individuals  would 
have  provided  safe  storage  for  all  these  rainfalls,  making  them  agents  of 
good,  and  preventing  them  from  becoming  a  demon  of  destruction.  With 
results  of  these  storms  still  in  full  view,  our  readers  will  please  peruse  the 
following  eloquent  appeal  made  to  the  tile  makers  of  Ohio  in  convention 
assembled  at  Columbus,  three  years  ago. 

The  speaker  was  Mr.  L.  W.  Matthewson,  civil  engineer,  of  -Cincin- 
nati, as  reported  for  and  published  in  The  Drainage  and  Farm  Journal 
of  Indianapolis,  Indiana.  Let  every  reader  peruse  and  ponder,  and 
make  up  his  or  her  mind  whether  aquaculture  or  the  new  agriculture  is 
a  chimera,  or,  on  the  contrary,  the  greatest  and  most  triumphant  exhibit 
of  physical  fact  brought  out  since  time  began: 

"  The  profits  of  farming  by  established  methods  are  small,  hence  the 
reluctance  of  farmers  to  take  risks.  They  are  impelled  to  close  economy, 
and  it  becomes  a  habit  verging  upon  parsimony  too  often.  But  here  is 
at  least  a  way  of  securing  enormous  gains,  and  the  plan  is  therefore 
worthy  of  consideration.  What  Mr.  Cole  has  done  may  be- repeated  a 
thousand  times — it  will  be,  too — when  farmers  have  a  clear  view  of  its 
attendant  advantages. 


A  NEW  SYSTEM  OF  AGRICULTURE.  95 

How  is  this  to  be  introduced  to  the  farming  world?  No  matter 
how  enthusiastic  and  earnest  the  author  may  be  in  pushing  it,  you,  who 
know  how  much  hard  work  it  requires  to  induce  the  farmer  to  take  hold 
of  tile  drainage  costing  $10  or  $20  per  acre,  can  readily  appreciate 
that  they  are  not  going  to  rush  precipitously  into  a  scheme  requiring  the 
expenditure  of  $100  to  $300  per  acre.  But  many  farms  are  destitute  of 
springs  or  permanent  running  waters.  To  such,  an  everflowing  spring 
would  be  of  great  value,  both  for  household  use  and  for  general  farm 
purposes.  One  acre  can  be  prepared  at  much  less  cost  than  cisterns 
can  be  dug,  or  wells  bored,  and  windmills  erected,  aud  this  will  secure  a. 
constant  flow  of  perfectly  pure,  living  water.  Now  if  in  addition  to  this^ 
the  farmer  finds  this  acre  more  easily  tilled,  and  yielding  four-fold  crops 
of  better  quality,  then  will  he  not  hesitate  to  invest  the  profit  of  this 
acre  upon  other  acres,  until  his  farm  is  honeycombed  with  reservoirs  and 
overflow  trenches.  The  farmer  or  the  gardener  is  then  the  absolute 
master  of  the  situation.  He  cares  not  for  floods  or  drouths.  He  knows 
that  when  he  plants  he  shall  reap  an  abundant  harvest. 

Were  this  system  once  generally  adopted  along  the  banks  of  the 
Alleghany,  Monongahela,  and  the  Ohio  rivers,  for  a  distance  of  only  ten 
miles  on  each  side,  covering  an  area  of  30,000  square  miles,  then  would 
our  terrible  floods  be  reduced  to  insignificance,  and  the  summer  stage 
brought  up  so  that  the  *  Broad  horns '  could  float  from  Pittsburgh  to 
Cairo  in  July  as  in  March.  Then  would  we  snap  our  fingers  at  Uncle 
Sam,  bid  him  take  out  his  dams  and  dikes,  keep  hands  off,  and  give  our 
beautiful  Ohio  free  swing  from  the  Alleghany  to  the  Mississippi.  To 
our  short-sighted  vision  such  conception  seems  almost  like  the  vaporings 
of  a  madman.  But  let  us  roll  back  the  wheel  of  time  for  only  ten  years 
to  1876.  We  see  tile  drainage  in  its  infancy  struggling  feebly  for  a  foot- 
hold. Look  upon  it  to-day  as  with  giant  strides  it  steps  across  the 
States  of  Ohio,  Indiana,  Illinois,  Iowa,  and  Michigan,  and  reaches  out 
with  mighty  arms  to  take  in  all  of  Uncle  Sam's  dominions,  and  the  rest 
of  the  civilized  world.  To-day  I  have  the  pleasure  of  looking  into  the 
faces  of  scores  of  men,  each  one  of  whom  could  tell  the  wonderful  story 
of  the  marvelous  march  of  tile  drainage,  which  if  told  in  '76  would  have 
marked  him  as  a  visionary  and  a  dreamer." 

The  New  York  State  Experimental  Station  at  Geneva  was  among  the 
first  institutions  of  its  kind  set  in  operation.  This  station,  working  under  a 
Board  of  Control,  with  Dr.  Lewis  E.  Sturtevant  as  Director.  In  its  an- 


96  DRAINAGE  AND  IRRIGATION. 

nual  report  ot  1888,  on  the  first  fifteen  pages,  is  clearly  set  forth  the  fun- 
damentals of  agriculture  and  horticulture  in  fullest  of  perfection.  Dr. 
Sturtevarit,  one  of  the  most  advanced  thinkers  and  workers  of  the  coun- 
try, was  the  first  to  step  to  the  front  and  boldly  make  declaration  under 
head  of  "  water-table  "  as  follows  :  "  As  evaporation  during  the  growing 
season  is  in  excess  of  the  rainfall,  it  becomes  evident  that  farming  suc- 
cess is  only  possible  from  the  existence  of  a  stored  water  supply  within 
the  soil  from  the  surplus  of  the  ^season,  when  evaporation  is  somewhat 
checked,  or  from  the  waters  accumulated  from  the  surface  or  saturated 
flow."  The  requirements  of  the  principles  set  forth  are  all  met  by  this 
system. 

Mr.  Cole's  system  has  received  the  compliment  of  extended  notice 
and  endorsement  at  the  hands  of  the  leading  papers  of  the  day  and  coun- 
try. We,  in  behalf  of  Mr.  Cole,  to  these  gentlemen  extend  thanks. 

Since  boyhood  Mr.  Cole  has  made  study,  observation,  and  experi- 
ments with  a  view  to  (by  some  method  as  near  nature's  as  possible)  save 
the  waters  of  rain  and  snow,  and  hold  them  in  storage  until  such  time  as 
they  would  be  required  by  the  crops  of  the  growing  season,  to  compel 
them  to  deposit  their  valuable  elements  of  fertilization  in  the  soil,  and  to 
prevent  their  loss  in  rush  of  floods  over  the  earth's  surface,  carrying  in 
their  flow  destruction  to  soil,  crops,  and  other  property,  also  prevent  their 
stagnation,  a  condition  in  which  they  work  injury  to  man,  beast,  and  crop,, 
breeding  for  the  first  two  disease,  and  destruction  to  the  last  by  sure  and 
direct  means.  He  began  making  earnest  aud  extended  experiments  in 
this  line  while  residing  in  Basswood  Cottage  on  the  White  Creek,  Alle- 
gany  County,  N.  Y.,  afterward  continuing  them  on  a  plot  of  two  city  lots 
in  the  City  of  Brooklyn.  Upon  his  return  to  his  home  in  Wellsville,  N. 
Y.,  he  took  up  the  work  in  earnest,  and  devoted  time,  labor,  and  money 
without  stint  until  he  had  perfected  his  present  method,  and  secured  the 
desired  results.  Having  done  so,  he,  acting  under  the  advice  of  friends 
who  knew  a  little  of  the  outlay  he  had  been  to,  as  well  as  the  amount  or 
work  he  had  done,  applied  for  a  patent  to  cover  the  system.  Never  were 
the  merits  of  a  thing  for  which  patent  was  asked  more  thoroughly  looked 
into  than  were  those  of  this. 

On  the  22d  of  July,  1884,  the  patent  was  allowed,  and  the  papers  is- 
sued. Underground  storage  and  distribution  of  water,  as  well  as  all  ma- 
terials which  can  be  used  in  construction  are  covered  by  it.  Mr.  Cole  at 
once  said  a  very  small  remuneration  for  his  work,  study  and  outlay  was. 


A  NEW  SYSTEM  OF  AGRICULTURE.  97 

all  he  desired,  and   the  price  for  right  of  use  should  be  placed  at  a  figure 
so  low  it  would  not  be  a  burden  or  tax  on  the  poorest  landowner. 

The  following  price  has  been  fixed  upon  for  right  of  use  by  individu- 
als, and  will  not  be  varied  from. 

For  one  acre  or  less $5  oo 

For  all  over  one  acre i  oo  per  acre. 

This  is  but  a  single  payment,  to  be  made  on  application  for  deed, 
and  not  an  annual  payment  as  some  have  seemed  to  think. 

Hot  water  rights  not  included  in  this  price. 

Special  prices  given  for  them  on  application.  Mr.  Cole,  on  his 
model  plot  grows  all  the  most  desirable  varieties  of  strawberries,  rasp- 
berries, and  blackberries,  currants,  vines,  bushes,  and  trees,  all  of  which 
are  absolutely  free  from  disease.  (See  report  of  Dr.  Early.)  They  are 
very  strong,  bear  transportation  to  long  distances,  and  take  hold  in  new 
growth  as  soon  as  reset. 

Special  directions  sent  with  each  order  sent  out  by  us  for  all  year 
round  care,  according  to  locality  where  sent.  Orders  carefully  filled  and 
packed.  Prices  for  stock  given  on  application.  These  will  at  all  times 
be  as  low  as  any  good  stock  in  the  market,  and  when  the  advantage  of 
healthy  growth  given  them  by  this  system  is  considered,  they  will  be 
cheaper. 

For  rights  or  any  desired  information,  address 

A.  P.  COLE,  Agent, 
Wellsville,  Allegany  County, 

New  York. 


HOME  ON  THE  HILLSIDE, 
WELLSVILLE,  N.  Y.,  June  29th,  1889. 

I  endorse  all  found  in  this  book,  my  son  having  done  the  work  to 
my  entire  satisfaction  and  this  is  all,  in  my  enfeebled  state  of  health,  I 
can  contribute  to  its  pages.  As  regards  to  the  extent,  value,  and  im- 
portance of  my  discoveries,  I  have  left  their  vaunting  to  a  cloud  of 
witnesses  all  along  uncounted,  and  now  unanimous  in  their  verdict  of  ap- 
proval, and  I  confess  that  in  view  of  the  fact  my  discoveries  are,  figura- 
tively speaking  at  least,  that  mysterious  three  in  one  and  one  in  three 
of  God  in  nature  symbolized  by  the  predictions  of  the  earliest  sages, 
seeking  through  ages  to  find  it  out.  It  appears  at  last  in  the  form  of 
harvests  of  wealth  and  worth  to  the  world,  transcending  in  value  all 
others  hitherto  combined.  I  see  no  reason  why  I  should  not  have 
at  least  the  credit,  whether  living-  or  dying,  due  from  their  coming.  To 
say  the  least,  it  would  seem  settled  that  the  water  supply  of  the  greatest 
city  of  the  world,  instead  of  being  furnished  from  an  artificial  lake  of 
unprecedented  proportions,  standing  as  a  constant  manace  to  the  lives 
and  property  of  millions  of  people,  should  no  longer  receive  serious  con- 
sideration, but  that  the  counties  of  Westchester,  Putnam,  Duchess,  Col- 
umbia, and  others  east  of  the  Hudson,  reaching  out  to  the  Adirondacks, 
should  be  dotted  with  living  springs,  linked  by  streams  with  crystal  lakes, 
with  water  at  temperature  to  grow  brook  trout,  and  in  the  meantime,  in 
securing  such  water  supply,  the  lands  trenched  will  become  worth  on  the 
average  from  fifty  to  one  hundred  dollars  an  acre  at  least,  in  place  of  one 
dollar  in  value  of  the  past. 

A.  N.  COLE, 


Died.  —  At  about  midnight,  July  I4th,  at  his 
residence,  "  The  Home  on  the  Hillside,"  at 
Wellsville,  Allegany  County,  N.  Y.,  the  Hon.  A. 
N.  Cole,  in  the  6yth  year  of  his  age. 


101 

The  death  of  Mr.  Cole  took  place  after  a  long  illness,  during  which 
he  was  a  great  sufferer.  While  unable  to  sit  up  or  hold  his  pen  he  dic- 
tated letters  to  many  who  will  be  our  readers,  also  to  the  press ;  always 
anxious  to  lead  others  to  see  what  he  has  known,  the  advantages  of 
saving  and  storing  one  of  God's  best  gifts  to  man — the  waters.  Since 
his  death  the  press  of  the  country  of  all  classes,  from  ocean  to  ocean 
and  from  the  lakes  to  the  gulf,  have  united  in  paying  compliment  to  his 
manhood  and  works.  Two  of  these  we  will  here  lay  before  you.  The 
following  appeared  in  the  Sun  of  July  i6th,  and  is  from  the  pen  of 
Charles  A.  Dana,  the  ablest  and  most  distinguished  editor  in  the  United 
States.  The  editor  of  the  Sun  and  Mr.  Cole  were  intimate  friends : 

We  learn  with  deep  regret  that  Asahel  N.  Cole,  the  inventor  of  the 
system  of  subterraneous  irrigation,  died  at  his  home  in  Wellsville,  N.  Y., 
on  Sunday  evening.  He  was  in  the  sixty-seventh  year  of  his  age. 

A  complete  and  practical  manual  of  his  system  was  finished  by  Mr. 
Cole  only  a  few  weeks  ago,  and  we  understand  that  it  is  now  in  the 
hands  of  the  printers  and  will  soon  be  published.  If  this  system  should 
realize  even  a  small  part  of  the  benefits  he  confidently  expecte  from  it, 
his  name  will  remain  immortal  as  one  of  the  great  benefactors  of  man- 
kind. 

Mr.  Cole  was  a  man  of  a  warm,  earnest,  and  sanguine  nature, 
faithful  to  his  friends,  faithful  to  his  convictions  of  duty,  and  proud  of 
being  an  American.  Had  he  lived  to  see  his  system  widely  developed 
and  successfully  applied,  his  faith  in  it  would  not  have  been  increased  ; 
and  we  trust  that  his  death  may  not  prevent  an  adequate  test  of  its  value. 
His  death  leaves  the  world  poorer  by  all  his  genius,  energy,  enthusiasm, 
and  faith." 

The  following  is  from  The  Husbandman  of  July  24th,  1889  : 
"  A  little  more  than  a  week  ago  Hon.  A.  N.  Cole  died  at  his  *  Home 
on  the  Hillside,'  near  Wellsville,  Allegany  County,  N.  Y.    For  many  years 


102 


he  had  been  an  important  factor  in  public  affairs.  To  him  history  will 
give  credit  as  a  leading  organizer  of  the  Republican  party,  that  for  twenty- 
four  years  held  the  Presidency  of  the  Republic,  and  through  a  great 
part  of  that  time  controlled  every  department  of  the  general  govern- 
ment. Mr.  Cole  grew  to  full  manhood  under  conditions  that  imposed 
many  hardships.  Unaided  he  procured  an  education  that,  with  remark- 
able powers  of  mind,  aided  to  make  him  a  leader  of  men  ;  and,  though 
the  party  to  which  he  held  paternal  relations  never  rewarded  him  with 
important  positions,  there  were  times  when  his  influence  in  public  affairs 
was  potent,  even  though  not  publicly  recognized.  Perhaps  no  other  man 
in  the  period  of  his  greatest  activity  had  wider,  acquaintance  with  men 
who,  in  the  critical  period  of  internal  strife  and  the  years  following, 
managed  the  destinies  of  the  country.  His  keen  perception  and  alert 
mind  gave  him  fitness  to  direct,  as  he  did  on  many  occasions,  the  acts 
of  men  to  whom  power  was  delegated  by  the  suffrages  of  their  fellows. 
For  politics  he  had  natural  fondness,  intensified  by  indulgence  and 
many  political  triumphs,  from  which,  as  a  rule,  others  gathered  the 
fruits.  But  in  late  years  that  fondness  gave  way  to  a  consuming  ambi- 
tion, in  fact  the  outgrowth  of  a  long  life,  devoted,  in  large  part,  to  the 
study  of  economic  conditions  attending  the  development  of  American 
agriculture.  He  believed  that  farmers  might  augment  profits  greatly  if 
they  would  but  observe  more  closely  the  operation  of  natural  laws,  and 
avail  of  beneficent  influences  subject  to  their  command.  In  full  conso- 
nance with  this  idea,  he  began  a  few  years  ago  experiments  on  the  com- 
pact and  forbidding  soil  of  the  little  farm  that,  with  a  comfortable  house, 
constituted  his  '  Home  on  the  Hillside.'  His  purpose  was  to  deepen 
and  disintegrate  land  that  in  its  natural  state  was  little  better  than  clods 
brought  by  long  inaction  to  the  greatest  solidity,  and  he  reasoned  that  if 
that  unproductive  land  could  be  so  improved,  without  great  cost,  to  make 
it  produce  crops  fully  equal  in  quality  and  extent  to  those  gathered  from 
the  rich  alluvial  plain  in  view,  the  fact  would  be  of  immense  value  to 
thousands  of  farmers  whose  lands  were  of  a  similar  character.  His 


io3 

scheme  comprises  the  most  effective  system  of  irrigation  ever  devised — 
storing  the  rainfall  in  deep  trenches  extending  laterally  along  the  hill 
slopes.  From  these  he  expected  that  water  sunk  through  the  loosened 
and  comminuted  earth  would  be  held  within  the  compact  walls  of  his 
trenches,  to  be  released  only  by  slow  percolation,  whereby  roots  of  plants 
might  at  all  seasons  find  abundant  moisture.  His  success  was  marvelous  ; 
that  poor  land,  renovated  by  what  came  to  be  called  the  '  New  Agricul- 
ture,' produced  crops  far  superior  in  quality  and  extent  to  any  gathered 
from  the  choicest  lands  of  the  valley.  In  small  fruits  the  improvement 
was  so  great  that  plain,  truthful  statements  were  often  met  by  incredulity. 
The  evidence  was  in  open  view.  It  was  credited  by  men  of  science,  but 
those  who  could  profit  most  by  full  acceptance  refused  to  see  the  great 
improvement,  hence  the  '  New  Agriculture,'  certified  by  fruits  annually 
produced  with  unfailing  certainty,  was  spurned,  and  the  story  discredited 
as  the  vagary  of  an  old  man  self- deceived.  No  doubt  this  incredulity 
served  to  deprive  Mr.  Cole's  latter  years  of  much  happiness,  if  not  to  em- 
bitter feelings  naturally  buoyant,  and  possibly  to  hasten  his  departure, 
when,  with  his  abstemious  habits  and  natural  vigor,  he  had  reason  to 
look  hopefully  far  beyond  the  allotted  three  score  and  ten  years  that  he 
had  but  just  passed.  It  was  his  high  ambition  to  leave  to  his  fellow-men  a 
legacy  of  good  to  be  enjoyed  for  all  time.  He  did  not  live  to  see  that 
full  appreciation  for  which  he  had  intense  longing,  but  who  shall  say  that 
his  triumph  will  not  yet  be  that  great  benefaction  for  which  he  seemed 
ready  to  give  his  life  ?  " 


Return  to  desk  from  which  bor         d. 
This  book  is  DUE  on  the  last  date  stamped  be. 


LD21 


-100».9,'47(A5702sl6)476 


YC  68082 


298122 


TC 


UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA  LIBRARY 


